Although those looking at signs of where Hong Kong is losing business to Singapore, the latter is in sharp recession, and numbers show a toll on the region's top banks.

Analysis from GlobalData has found that Singaporeis  on the blunt end of quarterly profits. All three of Singapore's top banks, DBS Group, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) and United Overseas Bank (UOB) reported fairly dismal second quarters.

“Singapore has been one of the worst hit countries in the APAC region, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the country into a technical recession," said Anindya Biswas, company profiles analyst at GlobalData. The analyst reported UOB delivering the worst performance, registering a 17.7 per cent drop in net profit (after tax) between Q1 and Q2 this year. DBS and OCBC offset this somewhat rising by 7 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively.

But the real pain is being felt in sharp falls in profitability experienced by all three banks compared with performances a year ago. GlobalData comparisons show OCBC registering a 40.3 per cent drop in net profit in Q2 2020, UOB, on a similar trajectory, dropping by 39.8 per cent, and DBS falling by 22.2 per cent from second-quarter results a year ago.

Here's how the three banks, which are also prominent players across APAC, compare in income and profitability for the second quarter.

“OCBC remained the only local bank in Singapore to post a growth in its QoQ revenue by 5.4 per cent, thereby establishing itself as the country’s most resilient banking entity," Biswas said. Meanwhile UOB and DBS reflected a QoQ decline in their revenue of 6.1 per cent, and 7.5 per cent, respectively, the analyst said. Growth at OCBC has largely been driven by an increase in non-interest income as a result of a rise in trading income and higher insurance profits, the group reported.

While Asia is seen as the main recovery engine going into 2021, the region's banking sector is in for a continued rough ride. "Net profits and revenues are expected to further decline as the companies are forced to write off loans, adjust wage subsidies and defer loan repayments in alignment with the government relief measures, raising the concern levels amongst the shareholders,” GlobalData said.