Part of OCBC, the Singapore-headquartered bank, which is due to report financial figures later in February, said its discretionary portfolio management business has enjoyed an AuM surge.

One of Singapore’s main domestic private banks has trumpeted a sharp rise in discretionary portfolio management AuM during 2025, saying that regulatory reforms have also put a booster into the Asian city-state’s stock market.

Bank of Singapore has said this week that DPM assets under management expanded by almost 20 per cent last year from where they stood at the end of 2024. Singapore-focused investment mandates doubled over that time, which BoS said were fuelled by “strong demand” from high net worth investors and family offices for Singapore equities through these mandates.

These mandates allocate between 40 and 95 per cent to Singapore equities, with the remainder invested in Singapore dollar-denominated bonds and cash, BoS said in a statement.

Worries about concentration risks in US dollar-denominated portfolios drove interest in Singapore equities from clients in mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, the bank said.

“Going into 2026, we remain constructive on Singapore equities. Apart from sound fundamentals and healthy economic growth, the favourable risk-reward versus most developed markets should provide strong price support despite recent gains,” Jean Chia, chief investment officer at the bank, said.

Singapore-focused mandates logged double-digit investment returns in 2025.

Such figures come at a time when banks are due to report fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 financial data in coming weeks, which will shed light on how well they coped with gyrations in global markets last year. OCBC, parent of Bank of Singapore, is scheduled to announce its results on 26 February.

Singapore and rival jurisdictions such as Hong Kong are battling for pre-eminence as wealth management hubs. Singapore has sought to bolster its equity market: In February 2025, the Monetary Authority of Singapore unveiled the S$5 billion ($3.89 billion) Equity Market Development Programme (EQDP). The state has also enhanced its Grant for Equity Market Singapore scheme. Another package of measures is “Value Unlock,” designed to help Singapore-listed companies, particularly small- and mid-caps, improve shareholder value, investor relations, and capital optimisation.

On a separate front, this news service's editor reflected recently on the strength of the Singapore dollar and its role in anchoring the jurisdiction's financial centre.