The bank is integrating a number of banking businesses in Asia which it acquired from Citigroup. In other details, UOB said wealth management fees rebounded in the second quarter of 2024.

Singapore-listed United Overseas Bank yesterday reported a net profit – including one-off costs of integrating acquired Citigroup businesses – of S$2.912 billion ($2.17 billion) in the first six months of 2024. The figure was unchanged from a year earlier. 

Net interest income dipped 2 per cent year-on-year; net fee income rose 11 per cent – a pattern shown by other banks around the world in the latest quarter/half-year period as the boost to margins of recent rate rises have declined.

Net fee income in the second quarter rose 18 per cent on a year ago to a near historical high of $618 million, driven by a rebound in loan-related and wealth management fees and double-digit growth in credit card fees.

“The group delivered a good set of results for the quarter, and we see positive results across our diversified businesses. Our asset quality remained resilient, while our balance sheet continued to be strong with healthy levels of capital and funding,” Wee Ee Cheong, deputy chairman and CEO, said. 

UOB said its Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio – a bank’s “shock absorber” – eased to 13.4 per cent, as a result of the final dividend payout for 2023.

The bank’s board declared an interim dividend of 88 cents per ordinary share, representing a payout ratio of about 51 per cent.

The Citigroup reference relates to UOB buying the US bank's retail businesses in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam in 2022.

In June, UOB Thailand appointed Richard Maloney as its new chief executive officer. He succeeded Tan Choon Hin, who had led UOB Thailand since 2016.