Bank Of Singapore Considers Full Entry Into UK

Tom Burroughes

21 December 2016

is mulling the idea of setting up a private bank in the UK, attracted in part by falling costs amid the fall in sterling since the UK voted to leave the European Union, the Financial Times reported.

The report – the contents of which were confirmed to this publication by BoS – would suggest that while some banks and financial organisations have warned that Brexit might encourage some banks to move certain operations from London, others might see matters in a different light. BoS did not give further comments to this news organisation about the report.

BoS is part of Oversea Chinese Banking Corporation, one of the “big three” Singaporean lenders alongside DBS Group and United Overseas Bank.

The FT spoke to BoS chief executive Bahren Shaari. “London has always been expensive as a place to do business. Now it has become 20 per cent cheaper,” Shaari was quote as saying, adding that a presence in London would allow the Singaporean bank to get closer to Middle Eastern clients who frequent the UK capital. “London has history, legal certainty.”

Shari did not give a timeframe on when the London operation could be set up.

The news publication claims that experts say up to 100,000 jobs will leave the UK as banks and other financial services firms relocate to the continent. Such firms, the publication said, rely on London to get access to the EU. Those on the Brexit side of the debate say such fears are exaggerated; when the UK was being urged in the 1990s to join the euro, it was claimed that London will lose business to Frankfurt and other European hubs but in practice that did not happen. It is also argued that much depends on the degree of market access the UK is able to retain after Brexit, particularly surrounding the key issue of “passporting” of financial services and mutual recognition of legislation.

Bank of Singapore recently expanded its size by buying the wealth and investment management business of Barclays in Singapore and Hong Kong. It paid $227.5 million and brought in $13 billion in assets, $4.5 billion less than at the time of the original deal in April. The deal is among a number of M&A transactions affecting Asian banks; DBS in 2014 purchased the Asia private bank of Societe Generale and more recently, that of Australia’s ANZ.