SINGAPORE: Singapore’s biggest bank DBS Group said it expects group net interest income to improve this year and announced a capital return dividend plan on Monday (Feb 10) as it posted a 10 per cent rise in fourth-quarter net profit, matching expectations.
It also announced a S$1,000 (US740) bonus for staff as a reward for the bank’s performance.
Southeast Asia’s largest bank by assets said it now expected group net interest income in 2025 to marginally beat last year, an upgrade to its previous projection for net interest income to remain around 2024 levels.
“While macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties persist, the franchise and digital transformations carried out over the past decade position us well to continue delivering healthy returns,” DBS chief executive officer Piyush Gupta said in a statement.
DBS’s net interest margin, a key profitability gauge, rose to 2.15 per cent during the quarter from 2.13 per cent the same quarter a year earlier.
DBS, the first Singapore lender to report earnings season, said October-December net profit climbed to S$2.62 billion (US$1.9 billion) from S$2.39 billion a year earlier, on the back of growth in both commercial book and markets trading.
This matched the mean estimate of nearly S$2.63 billion from five analysts, according to LSEG data.
DBS announced a final dividend of 60 Singapore cents per share, versus 54 cents declared during the same quarter a year ago.
It said it planned to introduce a capital return dividend of 15 Singapore cents per share per quarter to be paid out over 2025, and expected to pay out a similar amount of capital either via this plan or other mechanisms in subsequent two years.
All staff except senior managers will receive the S$1,000 bonus as an additional reward for their contribution to the bank’s performance. DBS said S$32 million has been set aside for this.
UOB and OCBC, Singapore’s other banks, said in December they would award staff additional payments to help with cost-of-living concerns.
Singaporean banks were forecast to post stronger profits for the fourth quarter, but growth could take a hit this year as US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs and other policies threaten to undermine the global economy, analysts said.
Rival UOB is next to report its financial results on Feb 19.
