DBS profit up 28% to $2bn

The bank continues to push increase in presence in India and China to sustain growth.

DBS Group, the largest bank in southeast Asia, said Friday that net profit for last year rose 28 percent to 2.65 billion Singapore dollars ($2 billion) amid loan growth, bond sales, and a recovery in asset values.

Non-interest income tied to trading, wealth management and investment banking increased 28 percent to 2.75 billion Singapore dollars ($2.14 billion). Trading income alone doubled to 895 million Singapore dollars ($697.75 million) on the strength of treasury sales to corporate and retail clients.

“Our record full-year 2010 results are testimony to the work done to entrench our leadership in Singapore, re-energize Hong Kong, increase customer cross-sell as well as strengthen our regional wealth management and SME businesses,” Piyush Gupta, the bank’s chief executive, said in the statement.

For the fourth quarter, DBS profit’s increase was even more dramatic, rising 38 percent over the previous year to 678 million Singapore dollars ($528.53 million). It magnified the story for the year with increased trading, lower loan provisions and higher fee-generating activity.

Still, fourth-quarter profit was slightly less than what the bank notched in the third as trading activity slowed at year’s end.

View the full story in The New York Times.