OCBC posts 5% jump in Q3 profit, beating expectations

OCBC posts 5% jump in Q3 profit, beating expectations
Posted 27 Oct 2016 09:15 Updated 27 Oct 2016 09:20

SINGAPORE: The Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) beat estimates with a 5 per cent rise in quarterly profit in the third quarter of the year, helped by gains from its insurance and wealth management units, according to its financial results released on Thursday (Oct 27).

However, the bank warned of a challenging operating environment. The city-state's lenders must contend with growing risks to earnings as credit woes deepen for the offshore services sector, which has been hit hard by a drop-off in orders due to a near-two year rout in oil prices until early this year.

Net profit for Singapore's second-biggest bank came in at S$943 million in the third quarter as its insurance and wealth management business powered a 25 per cent climb in non-interest income.

The result handily beat expectations for a decline in profit with the average estimate at S$834 million from five analysts polled by Reuters.

But provisions for bad debt jumped almost 11 per cent to S$166 million, while net interest income dropped 6 per cent due to lower loan volumes and a weaker net interest margin.

"We continue to keep a firm grip on cost, maintain strong liquidity and capital, and ensure prudent levels of provisioning," OCBC Chief Executive Samuel Tsien said in a statement.

Offshore firms that have said they are struggling with debt payments include oilfield services company Swiber Holdings, which was placed under judicial management this month.

Signs of weakness in a trade-dependent economy and the domestic property market are also further squeezing loan demand.

- Reuters/mz


- wong chee tat :)

Flashy lifestyles hide hints of credit card woes

Flashy lifestyles hide hints of credit card woes
By Chew Hui Yan  Posted 25 Jun 2016 15:16 Updated 26 Jun 2016 02:22

SINGAPORE: They flash their credits cards at high-end restaurants and hang out at hip nightspots. The more adventurous among them think nothing about taking yearly vacations in the most exotic, far-flung places.

But such a lifestyle has also been identified as the main reason young professionals tend to rack up unsecured debts, Credit Counselling Singapore (CCS) said.

The organisation, which helps people clear their debts, believes a lot of this is due to peer pressure.

“If you have friends who go clubbing a lot, you might feel pressured to go with them because if you don’t, you’d start to lose your friends,” CCS president Kuo How Nam said in an interview with Channel NewsAsia.

This pressure might eventually lead to an unsustainable lifestyle, which is further glamourised on social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram.

“Don’t be fooled; people might post pictures of designer bags and nice restaurants but what you don’t see is how much they owe,” Mr Kuo said.

“Once, I picked up an issue of Tatler magazine (a luxury publication targeted at high-net-worth individuals) and recognised a client. Social status is more a function of how much you spend rather than how much you have.”

The CCS administers the Repayment Assistant Scheme, which was introduced in April last year to help those with large unsecured debts.

In 2015, it counselled 4,675 people, of which about 11 per cent were aged 30 and below. People aged 31 to 40 make up more than one third (about 1,800) of the total.

The CCS said this could be due to several reasons. For instance, people aged 31 to 40 may have young children and parents to look after; younger ones are less likely to have such responsibilities. Younger professionals thus are under less pressure financially and have greater freedom to spend on themselves.

Another contributing factor is the fact that one needs a minimum annual income of S$30,000 to be eligible to apply for a credit card. This means young adults who have just entered the workforce might not even qualify.

Mr Alfred Chia, the chief executive officer of financial planning company SingCapital, also noted that young professionals tend to have better financial literacy and responsibility compared to the older generation.

“The numbers are healthy and we’ve seen an increase in young working adults seeking financial planning,” he said. Over the last five years, SingCapital has seen an annual increase of 8 to 10 per cent in clients aged 30 and below.

Despite these encouraging statistics, Mr Kuo offered this note of caution for young professionals: “Be careful. How you spend your money is affected by who you mix with. This determines your lifestyle which decides whether or not you get into debt.”

It is also never too early for young professionals to start planning their finances, said Mr Chia. “It is normal for us to deviate from our plan but having one will remind us to come back to it,” he said.

For more on unsecured debt, catch Channel NewsAsia’s Spotlight segment on Sunday, Jun 26, at 10pm.

- CNA/av


- wong chee tat :)

OCBC launches open-source API

OCBC launches open-source API
The initiative is in line with the Monetary Authority of Singapore's vision to create a Smart Financial Centre and move toward an open API architecture.

By Patrick John Lim
Posted 17 May 2016 16:00 Updated 18 May 2016 10:02

SINGAPORE: OCBC Bank on Tuesday (May 17) became one of the first in Southeast Asia to launch an open Application Programming Interface (API) platform that allows developers to integrate the bank's products and services when building applications and programmes.

This is in line with the Government's Smart Nation Initiative and the Monetary Authority of Singapore's vision to create a Smart Financial Centre and move toward an open API architecture.

A screengrab of OCBC's API platform. (Photo: OCBC)

OCBC Bank's developer portal, Connect2OCBC, will provide free access to four open-source APIs: The branch locator, ATM locator, smart card advisor and foreign exchange APIs.

Mr Praveen Raina, senior vice president of Group Operations & Technology at OCBC Bank said: "The open APIs will put our data to more efficient use as it can be shared both internally across the bank and externally with third-party software developers."

"It will help us extend our reach to not only our customers but potential customers as well, while creating a better user experience." he added.

- CNA/hs


- wong chee tat :)

Exclusive: SWIFT warns customers of multiple cyber fraud cases

Exclusive: SWIFT warns customers of multiple cyber fraud cases

SWIFT, the global financial network that banks use to transfer billions of dollars every day, warned its customers on Monday that it was aware of "a number of recent cyber incidents" where attackers had sent fraudulent messages over its system.

Posted 26 Apr 2016 05:55 Updated 26 Apr 2016 18:30

REUTERS: SWIFT, the global financial network that banks use to transfer billions of dollars every day, warned its customers on Monday that it was aware of "a number of recent cyber incidents" where attackers had sent fraudulent messages over its system.

The disclosure came as law enforcement authorities in Bangladesh and elsewhere investigated the February cyber theft of US$81 million from the Bangladesh central bank account at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. SWIFT has acknowledged that the scheme involved altering SWIFT software on Bangladesh Bank's computers to hide evidence of fraudulent transfers.

Monday's statement from SWIFT marked the first acknowledgement that the Bangladesh Bank attack was not an isolated incident but one of several recent criminal schemes that aimed to take advantage of the global messaging platform used by some 11,000 financial institutions.

"SWIFT is aware of a number of recent cyber incidents in which malicious insiders or external attackers have managed to submit SWIFT messages from financial institutions' back-offices, PCs or workstations connected to their local interface to the SWIFT network," the group warned customers on Monday in a notice seen by Reuters.

The warning, which SWIFT issued in a confidential alert sent over its network, did not name any victims or disclose the value of any losses from the previously undisclosed attacks. SWIFT confirmed to Reuters the authenticity of the notice.

SWIFT, or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial

Telecommunication, is a cooperative owned by 3,000 financial institutions.

Also on Monday, SWIFT released a security update to the software that banks use to access its network to thwart malware that security researchers with British defense contractor BAE Systems said was probably used by hackers in the Bangladesh Bank heist.

BAE's evidence suggested that hackers manipulated SWIFT's Alliance Access server software, which banks use to interface with SWIFT's messaging platform, to cover their tracks.

BAE said it could not explain how the fraudulent orders were created and pushed through the system.

But SWIFT provided some evidence about how that happened in its note to customers, saying that in most cases the modus operandi was similar.

It said the attackers obtained valid credentials for operators authorized to create and approve SWIFT messages, then submitted fraudulent messages by impersonating those people.

FireEye, the internet security company whose Mandiant unit was hired by Bangladesh Bank to help investigate the heist, said the same group behind that hack had probably attacked other financial targets.

"FireEye has observed activity in other financial services organizations that is likely by the same threat actor behind the cyber attack on the Bank of Bangladesh," Vivek Chudgar, Mandiant's senior director for the Asia Pacific said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

FireEye declined to go into detail.

Rakesh Asthana, the World Informatix Cyber Security CEO, who is overseeing Bangladesh Bank's probe into the hack, declined to discuss the other attacks that SWIFT referred to.

He did, though, urge banks to conduct independent security assessments to make sure their networks are secure and prevent future attacks.

“SWIFT builds on security practices established by the customer itself and therefore it is imperative that in the wake of this attack, customers using SWIFT Alliance Access must strengthen their cyber security posture,” Asthana said

FOLLOWING THE MONEY

Cyber security experts said more attacks could surface as SWIFT's banking clients look to see if their SWIFT access has been compromised.

Shane Shook, a banking security consultant who investigates large financial crime, said hackers were turning to SWIFT and other private financial messaging platforms because such attacks can generate more revenue than going after consumers or small businesses.

"These hacks specifically target financial institutions because smaller efforts result in much larger thefts," he said. "It's much more efficient than stealing from consumers."

Justin Harvey, chief security officer with Fidelis Cybersecurity, said hackers followed the money and would be drawn into such schemes in hopes of emulating a big heist like the one on Bangladesh Bank.

"After the Bangladesh Bank heist became public, every other attacker out there is looking to see if they can do the same," he said.

SWIFT spokeswoman Natasha Deteran told Reuters that the commonality in these cases was that internal or external attackers compromised the banks’ own environments to obtain valid operator credentials.

"Customers should do their utmost to protect against this," she said in an email to Reuters.

SWIFT told customers that the security update must be installed by May 12.

"We have made the Alliance interface software update mandatory as it is designed to help banks identify situations in which attackers have attempted to hide their traces - whether these actions have been executed manually or through malware," she said.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston; Additional reporting by Serajul Quadir in Dhaka; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Martin Howell and Peter Cooney)

- Reuters


- wong chee tat :)