Good morning, everyone. We have some of our media friends with us and also some who have logged in online. We can't see you. I know you can't see us either, but please do kind of, you know, later on during the Q&A, do raise your hand and let us know that when you want to ask a question. Before we begin, I'm gonna pass the time to Helen first. Yep.
Yeah. Thanks, Chin Yee, and good morning, and welcome to our first quarter results announcement and the briefing. Would like to first introduce Chin Yee. For those who are in the room, I think you have introduced yourselves to each other already. Chin Yee is our own homegrown talent. That's how I always describe her. She joined the group as a management trainee. So like me, also joined the group as a management trainee, but Chin Yee has stayed with us and she has risen through the ranks and have done. I think I will never remember everything. Corporate finance, group treasury, investment research.
Yeah.
Asset management, and in the finance team, and in risk management as well. Is pretty well-rounded and she was our head of group internal audit before she took up the CFO role just this week. Just this week.
Just this week.
Just this week. I'm sure we will benefit from her experience and her understanding of the institution. Over time, I'm sure she will be getting to know all of you better as well. I will now pass to Goh Chin Yee to walk us through the financial performance.
Thank you, Helen, for the introduction. Good morning to everyone, and thank you for coming to our third Q results presentation. For everyone online, I hope to be able to meet you guys in person soon. All right. I will start with slide four. Okay. For the third quarter of 2022, we reported a record net profit of SGD 1.6 billion, a 31% increase from the previous year and 8% above last quarter. The group's annualized return on equity improved to 12.4%. Total income rose 23% year-on-year. A strong 44% rise in net interest income from higher interest rates and sustained asset growth more than offset the 4% decline in our net interest income. Sorry, in our non-interest income.
NIM expanded by 54 basis points year-on-year to 2.06%. Both customer loans and deposits grew by 6% from last year. As income growth outpaced that of expenses, the cost income ratio improved to 40.3%. Allowances set aside were comparatively lower against last year, and credit costs on loans were 14 basis points. The NPL ratio decreased to 1.2%, and our non-performing asset coverage ratio rose to 108%. OCBC's capital remains strong at 14.4% CET1 ratio. I will now move on to some key financial highlights in slide five. Okay, on banking operations, net profit rose 31% from a year ago and 10% quarter-on-quarter to a new high of SGD 1.37 billion.
Wealth management income was also higher for the quarter and comprised 35% of our total income. During the quarter, the group's wealth management business saw positive inflows of net new money, which offset decline in market valuations. As a result, our wealth management AUM was stable quarter-on-quarter. Our insurance business registered lower sales in Singapore, which offset an increase in sales in Malaysia, while NBEV margins were higher from more favorable product mix. Net profit contribution for the group for the quarter was SGD 233 million, 32% above last year. Okay, moving on to slide six. Our earnings base continued to be well diversified across businesses and geographies. Moving on to the next page, on balance sheet, we are well-positioned with healthy levels of capital, liquidity and funding.
This puts us in a very good state to support our customers and capture new opportunities as they arise. I'll skip slide eight, going to slide nine. Okay, moving on to the details of our group performance. For the third quarter, net profit rose 31% from the previous year to SGD 1.6 billion, mainly from higher net interest income. Compared to the last quarter, net profit rose by 8% as an increase in net interest income offset lower trading and insurance income. Turning to the next page. Our group's net profit for the first nine months was SGD 4.44 billion, 14% higher year-on-year, underpinned by growth in net interest income and lower allowances. This offset a decline in non-interest income and higher operating expenses. Turning to slide 12. Sorry, turning to slide 11 first.
Our group net profit grew sequentially for each quarter this year, reaching a new high for the first nine months. Okay, now to slide twelve. Similarly, our banking operations net profit also reached a record high for both nine months as well as third quarter. Okay, to slide fourteen now. Net interest income for the third quarter exceeded SGD 2 billion mark for the first time to reach SGD 2.1 billion. 44% higher year-on-year and up 23% QoQ. This was driven by margin uplift and asset growth. Net interest margin for the third quarter was 2.06%, rising 54 basis points from last year and 35 basis points from the previous quarter. Margins for the quarter improved across all our key markets, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Hong Kong, as a rise in asset yield outpaced our funding cost.
Turning to next page on non-interest income. Non-interest income for the third quarter was SGD 1.05 billion. Down 4% from last year and 11% from last quarter. The year-on-year decrease in non-interest income for the quarter was driven by lower fee income and sale of investment securities, which was partly offset by higher trading and insurance income. Against the previous quarter, the decline in non-interest income was mainly from lower trading and insurance income. Turning to next page. Going into more details from the previous slide, fee income for the third quarter was softer at SGD 453 million compared to the previous year. The drop in fee income for the quarter was mainly due to lower wealth management fees, as we continue to see a risk-off global investment climate, which dampened customer activities.
A year-on-year rise in our other fee segments for the third quarter, which included credit cards as well as loan and trade related fees, helped to partly mitigate the decline in wealth management fees. Moving to next page on trading income. Trading income, which mainly comprise customer flow, treasury income, was SGD 194 million for the quarter, above SGD 83 million a year ago. Compared to the previous quarter, a rise in customer flow income was more than offset by lower non-customer flow income, in part due to weaker investment performance. Turning to slide 18. Operating expenses for the third quarter was well managed and rose by 7% from last year, and a modest 1% quarter-on-quarter. The year-on-year increase for the quarter was largely attributed to rise in staff costs from headcount growth to expand our talent pool and annual salary increments.
With positive operating jaws from strong income growth, our cost to income ratio improved to 40.3% for the quarter. Next, on allowances. For the nine months, credit costs amounted to nine basis points. For the third quarter, total allowances were SGD 154 million. About half of these were for impaired assets, which comprise a SGD 47 million charge for the group's overseas properties. Third quarter, expected credit loss or ECL, one and two allowances were SGD 76 million, reflecting updates of macroeconomic variables in our ECL model. Turning to next page on total cumulative allowances. Our cumulative allowances increased from the previous quarter to SGD 4 billion. Coupled with the decline in non-performing assets, our NPA coverage ratio increased to 108% this quarter. Okay, next page on asset quality.
Our loan book remained resilient, and the NPL ratio trended lower to 1.2%. Non-performing assets at SGD 3.69 billion, lower by 7% quarter-on-quarter, as higher recoveries and upgrades more than offset our new NPA formation. Touching on Greater China. Greater China NPL ratio was 1%. The increase in Greater China NPLs for the quarter was largely attributable to a single network customer name that is highly secured against property, and there is no structural stress observed for the group's Greater China exposure. Turning to next page. Recoveries and rates for the quarter were higher at SGD 669 million across both the corporate and customer segments in Malaysia and Indonesia. Next page on customer loans.
Our loans grew 6% to SGD 303 billion from SGD 285 billion a year ago, as we supported our customers across our core markets of Singapore, Indonesia and Greater China, as well as our international network in U.S., Australia and U.K. By industry, the year-on-year increase was mostly driven by loans to the building and construction sector, FIs, investment and holding companies, and the consumer segment. Again, the last quarter, loans were up 2%. Our loans continue to be well diversified across geography as well as industry. The building and construction sector and housing loans remain the largest segment at 30% and 20% of total loans respectively. Turning to next on the customer deposits. Customer deposits grew 6% from a year ago, to SGD 353 billion and were 1% higher compared to the previous quarter.
As interest rate rose in line with market conditions, there was increased customer demand for higher yielding deposits. As such, we saw both continued shift of CASA balances to fixed deposits and new fresh funds placed with us. Consequently, our CASA ratio for the third quarter was lower at 56.1%. The group's liquidity remained ample with a loan deposit ratio of 85%. Next on capital. Our capital remains strong with CET1 ratio at 14.4%. The quarter-on-quarter decrease in CET1 ratio was mainly due to third quarter profit contribution being offset by the payment of our interim 2022 dividend, as well as higher credit risk-weighted assets associated with our asset growth. Okay, with this, I end my presentation and I will now pass back to Helen.
Thanks, Chin Yee. We just want to add some remarks. I have two very simple pages of information. While I think we all talk about the uncertainty out there, and this year's a pretty volatile year, but still pleased to have reported solid performance with which underscores our strong business fundamentals. I think Chin Yee went through all the information. Just single out that we're happy to see our banking net profit and also group net profit is also record high. This is very pleasant for the third quarter and also for the first nine months of the year. I think a lot of attention obviously focused on the net interest income and our NIM.
Indeed, the key driver of the performance is indeed the NII growth. I think I'll attribute that to a well-positioned balance sheet. We've been reshaping our balance sheet for the past two, three years. This allow us to capture the benefit from the series of rate hikes. We're talking about year-on-year uplift of more than 50 basis points for the third quarter NIM. On loans and deposits. Loans is 5% up year to date, and this is within our guidance. I'm expecting the full year to stay in the mid-teens level. This is indeed a lot is on supporting our customers' working capital and investment needs across our network.
I think we have a page that shows, Goh Chin Yee show a page of where we grow our loan book. Very much in Singapore, and in the international branches, that was shown earlier on. On the deposit side, our franchise continue to grow. I think a lot of investment in digitalization for the previous years. We have mentioned the deposits from SMEs actually grow very nicely because we think that it is very effective in opening an account with the SME. I think 98% of SME accounts were opened online, without having the customer to bring documents or whatever into the bank. On the consumer front, it's very effective. I believe we have the lowest number of clicks to open an account.
Once you click everything with the information, the account number comes to you in seconds. I think that is a result of really investment in digitalization. That helps us to have more accounts and indeed resulting in also a higher CASA percentage. CASA at 56%, this is comfortably above pre-2020 levels. We expect it will stay. Although, of course, with continued interest rate rising, there's still opportunity, but we will start to pass on, of course, to passing on to the depositors as well.
We know that CASA has dropped also because some of the funds are switched to fixed deposit, which is a natural phenomenon in a high-interest rate environment. On wealth management fees, indeed depends on the investment sentiment. The good thing is, we have net new money coming in across our private bank, across our Premier Private and also Premier accounts. I think the also investment in the wealth platform that is now uniform for both our BOS and OCBC Bank also allow customers to do their own investment much more effectively also without the need to necessarily talk to an RM.
I think that helps to sustain our marketing and dealings with our customers. On asset quality and credit costs, portfolio quality is resilient. NPL ratio declined to 1.2%, but our NPA coverage ratio is still above 100%. We have been proactively managing our book and indeed doing stress testing. I think one thing that helps to reduce the NPL, of course, is relief loans, which was relatively high last year or in the beginning of COVID, is now has been exiting in an orderly manner. I think the book is now about 0.2% of our total loan book.
I think it was as high as a high single digit at one point of time. We continue to see orderly exit. Customers are starting their repayment, and that's why, there's also some write-back on NPL, as well. Of course, we said that there is no systemic stress, but I won't be surprised. I think the world now always give a surprise, any idiosyncratic occurrence, I won't be surprised. But depending on what it is, if something does happen. Generally comfortable with the quality of our book, and on expenses, we continue to have investments to drive our franchise growth, raise productivity and deliver operational efficiencies. We have continued to see new results.
I just mentioned about deposits, and indeed, this is through investments over the year. We'll continue to target a positive operating jaw. Turning to a page, the next one, I did mention that I am comfortable and quite confident, and we will continue to build on the momentum. We are hoping to continue to reach our targets towards the end of the year. Loan growth mid-single-digit. The fourth quarter NIM with an exit NIM in the third quarter of 2.15% and the average NIM of 2.06% for the third quarter, we are expecting fourth quarter NIM to be above 2.16%.
For the full year, expect NIM to be between 1.8%-1.9% for the full year, likely to be in the high range of that, in the higher part of the range. We expect 2022 credit costs to be low to mid-teens in terms of basis points. Performance, I would say, should provide good banks for us as we move into next year. About the market, everyone talk about the uncertainties, inflation and slower growth, but I'm still more optimistic on the resilience of our key markets, in particular ASEAN. If you look at Singapore, we know that employment situation remains very firm. Travel and the consumer-facing sector benefited from the reopening.
I was at the SFF this week, and wow, I'm so happy to see the flow of people and it's really very normal. I arrived in 2020. I remember going there in 2020. We were really saying that you should sit at this table and five people, and you cannot cross to the other table. The tables are like three meters apart, I remember. There was very few people going there. Last year we saw more activities already, but I think this year is really normal. We do have, in the next two weeks, other types of conferences, et cetera. I have never received so many requests for meetings. There's a lot of people coming to Singapore, right?
A lot of people saying, "Hey, Helen wants to talk to you." I'm excited about it. Malaysia and Indonesia on path of a steadier recovery, expected to continue into next year. China expect policy measures to support growth, and of course, we hope that the opening up will be sooner than later in next year. Hong Kong gradual reopening, and they just held a conference, which is quite well attended, I was told. The message has been very positive from the Hong Kong government about reopening and the support for the economy to rebound. Of course, we have to be watchful of global macro vulnerabilities.
We stay cautious on near-term vulnerabilities from developed markets, which could have a tangential impact on the overall asset quality. Growing divergence in growth indeed and inflation outcome is yet to be seen. There is rising risk of policy miscalibration by central banks to tame the inflation. The recession risk remain high, elevated in Europe and the U.S. We'll remain also watchful in case it spill over to the Asian economies. Geopolitical tension and issues could not be understated. That could also further complicate business matters. I think in a way, our positioning for next year is good. Of course, we remain very watchful for how the market turns and switch in the coming year.
On the opportunities, definitely we see opportunities from the strengthening intra-Asia links. Indeed, our driving one group approach to capture opportunities from cross-border regional flows from supply chain and wealth migration. We do see quite obvious examples that we have won mandates for cross-border payment, which can be in between China, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia as an example. Continue to see wealth accumulated. As we said, we are able to bring in that new monies for our wealth business. We also deepen relationship with new economy industry, such as digital services, mobility, advanced manufacturing. I met quite a number of FinTech companies CEOs and owners at the SFF. Pretty robust.
I think the discussion is they are keen to continue to invest more into Singapore and from Singapore to the rest of the countries. In a way, these are indeed customers for us. We have opened accounts with many of these new companies coming into town. We continue to focus on strengthening our core. When I say core, this definitely means investment in technology. Indeed, ensure digital platforms work well, and this is to meet the evolving needs of our customers, and also to enhance the banking experience and to instill trust. Last year, you may remember, I set up the COO function with Ching Wei Hong heading that up.
We strengthened the transformation office, we strengthened the data office, and we strengthened the customer experience office, all under the COO. This all is an investment for us to, as I said, ensure that our platforms are sound and that we will be able to meet the needs of our customers. Benefiting from the digital progression, we saw in the third quarter a strong pickup in the number of time deposit placed digitally, so customers don't need to call us up. They found extremely fast, it's simple and convenient. Also do not need to queue up in the branch, and can simply open the one on our app, on our digital app.
We're also first in Singapore to enable CPF account to top up and directly from digital banking platforms as well. As part of our innovative drive and evolution to what's new in technologies, we will be minting and issuing NFTs, non-fungible tokens, to our employees through our own in-house blockchain platform. This is to commemorate our 90th anniversary. We entered our 91st year. Our birthday is on 31st of October. This week as well. Yeah. Very happy. We indeed need to deepen our talent pool. Investments will be in wholesale banking, in private banking, and in technology. Stepping up our ESG efforts. I think this is a big topic.
I always talk about it in all my announcements. We'll make further strides towards SGD 50 billion of our 2025 target. Midyear, you remember we said that our commitments was at SGD 37 billion, and now it's SGD 40 billion by end of September. This is commitments, but the drawdown has reached SGD 28 billion out of the SGD 40 billion commitments. It is about 9% of our loan book. I think it is quite a happy number. It's, I think, relatively high in the industry where banks choose to disclose the composition of the green and sustainable finance in the loan book. We announced in just last month that we joined the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.
We flex our commitment as a group to achieving net zero not just in operations but in lending and investments business by 2050. We will announce more details on how we treat our book in the coming months. In celebration of our ninth year's birthday we wanted to give back to the community and pleased to have launched OCBC Mangrove Park in Pulau Ubin. This is Singapore's first large-scale ecological mangrove restoration project. We also have started one in Malaysia at the same time. Together in as they have continued to grow the mangrove trees. Mangrove trees in a way store more carbon than palm trees like 3-5 times. Let's say four times.
The two projects together would be able to reduce about 13 million kg of CO2 in their lifetimes. I think reducing carbon emission is one of the key factor to help fight climate change. I'm very excited I was in there planting a tree, and hopefully go back every year to look at how the mangrove plants have grown and this very interesting ecology. I think I'll stop here. Thank you very much for coming today. I'll pass the time to Chin Yee.
Super. I hear that.
Yeah. Thanks, Helen. Yeah, indeed. We had that SGD 0 billion is like OCBC Mangrove Park.
We can go to visit.
Yes, please. You let me know how you want to do it, and we will arrange because it's not so straightforward.
Not so straightforward. We don't know where it is.
Okay. You can see outside there.
May I just.
Sure.
Just from what Helen said. You say full year 2022, net interest margin at 1.8%-1.9%.
Yeah. Full year. Yeah.
Okay. I didn't catch that.
Okay. We open to questions. I have to send my.
Sorry.
Okay.
Okay. The outlook. For next year, what are you expecting in terms of loan growth and net interest margins and credit costs? That's the first question, of course. Where do you expect. What's your pipeline like for the loan growth? Then, of course, the question on credit costs. Have all the relief loans been? Are they all out? I mean, have they all matured? You know, you had Malaysia
Indonesia.
Malaysia or Singapore long ago, but Malaysia and Indonesia, I think.
You said many points. One at a time, you remind me if I forget.
Okay.
Okay. Since we're on relief loans, we talk about that first. We're saying that the total amount is about 0.2% of the loan book. It comes down really substantially. When we say NPL, it impacts the NPL, right? Because once customers start to repay, we apply, like a six-month criterion, meaning customer has continuous paying for six months, then we can deem it not as NPL.
Uh-uh.
The total size also shrink, right? As we said, it's 0.2%. Meaning that, they're still there, right? There's still some there. But in a way they, which they think we exit off, meaning they start to repay. They have not all matured because we still have outstanding.
Okay.
That's relief loans. You talk about into next year what is the loan growth right? Loan growth I think it's a bit early to tell but I think it will be again we are thinking more again single digit. Whether it is mid-single or high single I probably have more color by the time we talk about our final results. By February I give you a better target. Yeah. I think we have momentum and customer demand to bring us that. Of course it's all subject to a lot of external environment. We can't be sure but that is the plan. You asked me then about
NIM. Because when is the Fed going to stop raising?
Yeah.
If it grows.
Well, I think the market did talk about potentially still one more in December and one more in the first quarter, right? That means we expect next year for interest rate to remain high.
Mm-hmm.
The high NIM environment also potentially can hold next year. When I say can hold, you will naturally see more like if it is high-interest rate environment all the while, and if market investment factor is also still quite uncertain, then you will continue to see the deposit costs and funding costs will pick up as well. It's two sides, right? One side is further interest rate rising, and it's a full year impact. On the other side is the deposit costs rising or your funding costs rising. I think hopefully next year we'll hold. I also will give you after the full year results, maybe a better target of or estimate of NIM.
We're saying that the full year is 1.8%-1.9%. If it will hold, that means I hope that that range will be there. Potentially higher, depends on how we look at next year as we finish this year. Hopefully it will hold. That's on NIM. You were asking about the credit costs. Credit costs, we are talking about low 20 bps for the full year. I do not see systemic risks.
Mm-hmm.
We have done a lot of stress tests. Again, hopefully that can hold as well. Next year, as again, I give you clearer target by the time we meet again to talk about the final results. I think these are the three numbers you have asked.
The three numbers. Yeah. Okay. In terms of, like, more like qualitative, so that, you know, there's been a lockdown in China, et cetera, and then there's been a new seven-man Politburo Standing Committee, et cetera. How does this change? I mean, has this changed your Greater China strategy in any way? Or how would it change your Greater China strategy, if at all?
Yeah.
Perhaps. Yeah.
Yeah.
If it would.
First thing, we just generally don't comment on politics.
No, no.
I mean, because it's, yeah.
Yeah.
When we look at our China, our Greater China business.
Mm-hmm.
The strong story is about how we link up Greater China with ASEAN.
Mm-hmm.
Which is what we call our one group approach, right? I think in the past, we were not doing as much, but over the last few years, as I said earlier, we have been investing a lot on our product capabilities. You can only serve customer cross-border only when you have the product capability. That is what I mentioned, right? You have then Chinese company coming over to ASEAN, and I mentioned fintech companies, but also again the China Plus One story continues.
Mm-hmm.
We have seen the advanced manufacturing in Penang, which I mentioned the other day. I was talking to a manufacturer, a chip manufacturer who has a big factory in Penang, and he told me the company is local and the company has been there for 60 years. Of course, they are seeing more investments into Penang. I said that, "So how is international competitors competing with you?" He said, "We are all building, right? We're all manufacturing and we are all exporting." In a way that if there's more investment into the area, it's better because your supply chain will be richer as well. This is where we are seeing that, where the opportunities are.
Where there is investment into manufacturing, the local supply chain also got more business. This is the opportunity I talk about regarding China Plus One. To our China story, in a way, you may remember we also talk about our onshore loan book is actually not very big. It's about 2% of our total loan book. The reason is we don't intend to compete head-on with the other big banks domestically. Our advantage is in to be able to lead the Chinese clients into assets. That is where we are strong.
Mm-hmm.
I cite Malaysia, I cite Indonesia, I cite Singapore, and that is exactly where we are strong. To an extent, every SGD 1 we lend in China, we potentially are banking with all these Chinese companies overseas, we potentially lend SGD 4. You see where the opportunity lies.
Mm-hmm.
Right? In a way, total Greater China book is not small. If you look at our pie chart, right?
Yes.
It's not small. Because Hong Kong, the big, very substantial big Hong Kong customer also bank with us. But the loan book in Hong Kong definitely much bigger than the China book.
Mm-hmm.
That's how we look at China opportunities. In a way, for our strategy, to serve Chinese companies and China wealth coming overseas, that does not change. We see the opportunity will continue. Singapore is our hub, is our strong hub, working with the Hong Kong hub, and I think this is exactly where we think the opportunity lies. You also may recall that last year we also integrated our original OCBC Hong Kong branch business with Wing Hang Bank. It's now one team. I have a Greater China team now. That the Hong Kong team work very closely with the China team. We continue to see China companies bringing business to Hong Kong and then overseas.
I think the strategy is not impacted by the situation in China. Of course, if Chinese economy is not growing as fast, it has also ripple effects on the rest of Asia as well. I think the companies to continue to see that Chinese exports stay strong, right? And potentially also helped by the weakening renminbi. In a way, where there is trade, where there is investment flow, that's exactly what we're targeting, and the wealth flow as well.
The property sector problems and the debt problems, the property sector haven't affected.
We have made whatever provisions we have decided to make, but our real estate exposure for China names are very. If you look at our China book, I think I can disclose that. When I talk about the China book, it's about 2% of the total loan book, but only one-third is onshore, only one-third of that is in real estate.
Mm-hmm.
Even having said that exposure, I think a bit about.
More than 90%.
More than 90% is network customers. That's why we are saying that our exposure to domestic real estate companies is really low. Even if it is domestic real estate companies, it's potentially more SOEs. Yeah.
Yes.
You are ready now.
Thank you. You ask all the tough questions. Just to go there, can I just ask about it? I know that you just talk about Greater China exposure, but that seems to be 25% of total loans, need to be monitored. That's the report that mentioned that there's a default of one customer in the third quarter. Could you talk about it a little bit?
It is a network name, which invested in China. The loan is secure, fully secure.
Mm.
Yeah. That's why we have to look at it as an NPL, because we are looking at the security till we pay the loan and.
Mm.
It's in process.
It's a network name?
Huh? It's a network name. It's a customer from Singapore invested in China.
Oh, I see. The loan is fully secured.
It's fully secured.
Largely secured.
With Chinese-
With Chinese assets, is it?
With China assets, yeah.
Yes. I see. Yes, sorry, I have two other questions. Can I get your outlook on Greater China in general? For the mainland, do you see lockdown to be prolonged? How many quarters? You say that you don't see any systemic risks, but you also flag a lot of uncertainties. I mean, in your view, what are you preparing to?
Okay.
For the unknown?
China first. I think my read is everybody's guess, and potentially you guys get more than I do from China. I think there is an intention to look at how to open up in a good manner. I do not have any particular insight. I just hope that it will be earlier than later. Earlier meaning, hopefully it will be end of first quarter, early second quarter. I think China always do it in an orderly manner, right? I think taking perhaps Hong Kong and Singapore as examples, how do you manage that? Whether there's differentiation between cities, I would not know. Again, I think China has listened to a lot of views.
I think they are working on it, but when would it open up? I do not know. To add a question, sorry. You talk about inflows for the wealth management unit. Could you share, like, which regions that are maybe significant contributors to those inflow? Do you see AUM growing significantly next year? You also mentioned in your outlook about deepening the talent pool. Could you share a little bit? We have seen lots of management changes. Which units or which operations that you will continue to strengthen? Okay. Well first, right, the first question is wealth. I think we've seen quite a balanced growth of net new money. Yes, there is Greater China clients, but also, we have Bank of Singapore has presence in the Middle East. We are in Dubai.
We are in Europe, London. I think and even, I mean, locally, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, we do all cover. In a way it's quite even. Less, perhaps less so from Europe. Europe has their own situation to manage. In a way we do see quite even, you know, increase in wealth customers. Of course the Singapore book is always there. If you talk about growth in net new monies in Premier Private and Premier, that would be more Singapore. That is for the wealth piece. Then you ask about talents and management change. Yes, indeed. I think we were happy to have Helen Wong joining earlier in the year in March.
He is also continue to invest in people. I mentioned earlier on next year when he's also looking at having more people for the wholesale business. Wholesale business, its customer coverage, and indeed he's building this link, right? Because a lot of what we talk about the investment flow and the products capabilities is very much wholesale and global treasury as well. We're also investing into technology, continue investing in technology. We need to build our core. We need to continue to make sure our digital capability continues to serve our customer well. We need to invest, everybody is in defending from cyber. I think that's defending from fraud. That's everybody, every bank is doing. We'll continue to invest as well.
I think the other opportunity is wealth. It is not restricted to Bank of Singapore, but it would be in CFS in frontline RM who can be serving customer in the wealth inflow as well. Will you be hiring more RMs? Yeah. In general, more RMs. Any targets? No luck. I think you have about 400 RMs as of today. That would. You're talking about Bank of Singapore. You need to look at wealth, not just from Bank of Singapore. Yeah. Because the retail has a very strong Premier Private Client base, which is a light private banking business. Yeah. In line with what you said before. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. That match the strategy as well.
We talk about our four growth areas in our refreshed corporate strategy. The first one is the intra-Asia investment and trade flow. Right. I talk about that's why we want to strengthen our wholesale banking unit. Yeah. We have the wealth piece. I talk about so much already. The third piece is our new economy, meaning I talk about all the potential new customers from the fintech sector, the e-commerce sector, and we have other parts of a new company arriving in town. There is more licenses given out by the MAS for some of the fintech companies, which we work as a partner as well.
They open an account with us, but we also work as partners with some of them. We are also looking at the fourth one is the sustainable financing and investments, which we said that we continue to grow the book. That part is indeed growing faster than the book. Next year, would we cross the double digit we say? We say that is 9% of our total loan book. Will next year be 10%? I'm not sure now, but we do see customers continued demand as we help them to transition. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Good question. Yes. Thanks, Helen. I have a question on the macro outlook. Do you see a kind of tipping point at which, you know, the U.S. might kind of enter a recession?
What would the extent of the impact be on Asia and on growth in Singapore? There was GP provisions of about SGD 70+ million. This is versus the same quarter last year when there was a write-down. What are the possible areas of stress that you see in the bank's portfolio? My third question is on the NFT fifth year anniversary that you mentioned. Maybe have some color on that as well. That question can be taken by Shane. The one who can give you more information. Yeah. Good question. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, macro. I think you earlier asked a similar question, but not exactly the same, which I have not taken the policy.
Indeed, I think the main concern is inflation, right? How does inflation, the pressure goes, and I mean, what's the stress is going to be like? When you say that, do I see U.S. going into it? A lot depends on whether the effect of interest rate rising can curb further inflation. It's again, everybody's guess, right? That is in fact, potentially the biggest uncertainty is how does inflation eventually. Has it peaked? Will it continue to go? Would that become what we call a stagflation environment, right? If U.S. and Europe both go into a stagflation environment, I don't think Asia can be spared. Spared meaning we will be impacted.
Again, with the continued economic recovery as a lot of the Asian economies step out of COVID, I think compared to 2020 or even to some part of 2021, next year, I think Asia is still more resilient.
Mm-hmm.
Because there's quite a lot of pent-up demand, right? As you say, traveling has resumed. All the conferences have resumed. You talk about people really need to spend some money after two years of not really doing much, right? I think if there is no big systemic risk happening, obviously we're talking about geopolitical tension and how long the Russia-Ukraine war continues, and how does energy prices react to that continuously. All these are the uncertainties that we're facing. I just hold on to the point that Asia still do relatively better than U.S. and Europe. But of course, if something truly bad happen, then everything will be impacted. We go back to you saying about the over 2020.
Nobody expect COVID coming. COVID came, and of course, the market reacted to it, right? With wealth accumulated in Asia for a pretty long time and governments able to help and come up with relief measures and helping salary help and all that. In a way, the market, a lot of the Asian economies managed to bounce back after COVID. Inflation is a different impact, right? I think the world has to continue to trade. Manufacturing still have to go on. Hopefully for Asia, then it does react better. We are in, as I said, always said, we have a three pillar business. We are not just in banking, we're in insurance and in the wealth as well.
In days where people feel that they need more protection, insurance comes into play. Then wealth, as I said, is a continued growing even over COVID. We also won more wealth customers as well. That is why we say that investment in digitalization is so important. It is because customers do not need to travel to see you. They also do not need to come to your bank to see you. The branch network is still important because customers still want to sometimes do more in-depth discussion on managing their investment and wealth, and that's where the RM comes into play, and helping customers to think an overall picture of how to manage their wealth.
It's difficult to say when you say how do we look at what is the main stress. I would say inflation is the main stress, and then geopolitical tension, the second one.
Mm-hmm. Thank you.
Mm.
[Kathy?]
Yeah.
Just to follow up on this macro question. Is it right, is it accurate to say that you don't see the region, ASEAN region headed for a recession? I have another question on technology investments. A lot of banks now are also exploring like tokenizing assets and offering that to the investors. I wonder if OCBC is looking at exploring that at scale. I know that was something you did with the carbon credits. Just wondering whether that's something that would get expanded. I think earlier on there was mention of expanding the RM bench. How much are you looking at growing that?
Okay. The first one is macro. Would recession in Asia, would it happen? Is it?
Yes. Mm-hmm.
Stagflation. Would that happen to inflation?
Yeah.
I don't have a firm view, but that's what we say about uncertainties, right? I'm just generally saying that Asia is more resilient. But it depends on how big the impact of the overall impact of the world is. If the whole world goes to minus or negative economic growth, Asia would not be spared. Does it go to a negative or is it really low single digit, right? Or it's pretty flat, right? That will be difficult to say. It's just that it should do better than the rest of the region. That's your first question.
Mm-hmm.
The second one about tokenization. It's something we continue to work on. We actually have a task force working on it. Looking at first thing on what is the customer's interest and demand. The second thing is the technology supporting that. As we said, we are already using blockchain technology, and we have done tokenization before. So is to tokenize on to break it into smaller parts to sell to customer. So, this will continue to go on. When you say large scale, it also depends on customers demand as well. We're generally not supportive of speculative demand. Meaning, if they want to buy into something that is really volatile, and that is not exactly what we want to do for our customers.
To use the technology to create products that is a good investment for our customers that we continue to do. Yeah. That's your second question. Your third one about
The third one the same as actually what Harsh Wardhan Modi was asking, whether number of RMs will expand to how many.
Yeah.
I still don't think we are giving.
Yeah.
We will not give a figure.
Yeah, we're not giving.
Yeah. Because I mean, we are hiring across all the core areas.
Yeah.
It is also hard to say, like, by this certain number.
Yeah.
Okay. Can I ask one last question. Sorry. Okay. Can I just ask whether online, anyone going to ask questions? Okay, looks like they are happy for y'all to represent them. Goola, yes, last question. Yeah, sure. In terms of this blockchain technology, I mean, do you have any view on whether you want to join, you know, DBS and Partior and J.P. Morgan and Partior? Or you know, they are also doing that pilot in Project Guardian, which once again, those two banks, but not the other two local banks. If there's any view on that, and so would you partner any of the other local banks in some of these pilots? And the second question is on your CET1, maybe it's to Goh Chin Yee. Does it include the Great Eastern capital charge?
Does it include the Great Eastern capital in your CET1? Because yours is always a lot higher than the others, and then you won't pay back some of our, you know, some of the investors in dividends, that sort of thing. Yeah. That's the. Yeah. Could you quickly go?
Okay. Tokenization and assets and we have been working actually to establish ourselves with the ecosystem. How do I say that? We announced a couple months back that we have work with a company, which is a licensed, MAS-licensed company, called MetaVerse Green Exchange. Company is called MetaVerse Green Exchange. We are working together to consider tokenization of green assets. This comes into our sustainable play as well, right? Our sustainability play as well. Are we working on certain things? We are. This is something that we have announced, that's why I want to use this as an example. Yeah. Eventually, what is that work going to be like?
Whether it will eventually be a joint venture platform or whether it will be an investment in the platform, and whether it is a cooperation, we will have more to tell as we continue to work on that. That is one example. We have been working on other platforms as well. Some of the initiatives we initiated using blockchain to look at trade data. I think these are all ongoing. We definitely are working with the other banks.
Mm-hmm.
We are very keen to use the technology, right? To serve the best is, the trade platform we're talking about using blockchain is to ensure that every piece of trade data can be traced, right?
Mm-hmm.
This is to help to prevent any type of fraud in the process of trade documents.
Right. Contour.
This is the Contour.
Contour.
This is Contour. We are as active as any other bank, and we are one of the leading banks in that as well. We have a few of these initiatives. As things mature further, we definitely would want to share with the media.
No, because Partior seems to be doing things. You're not interested in Partior particularly. In the J.P. Morgan, DBS, the cross-border, they're using blockchain.
I don't want to comment on that.
Oh, you don't wanna comment. Okay, gre at. Yeah. Okay.
This is Goola. Maybe we leave Chin Yee to answer the last part of it, which is the.
Yes, the Group CET1 ratio, right? Yeah. Your question is whether it's good and also is higher than our peer banks. Okay, firstly, on inclusion of Great Eastern, the treatment of insurance company, we go according to the regulatory authority for a group with insurance. Yeah. That's according to the MAS Notice 637. In terms of our ratio being higher, yeah, we do have. We have been optimizing RWA over the years, you know, and as a result of which, the RWA ratio is fairly kept at a good level.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Also driving the return on RWA from the businesses. That sort of adds to the CET1 ratio being at a very healthy level.
I think for that would be not sure, the year before, because of applying IRB to
Oh yes.
To Wing Hang.
Yeah. That was a jump.
Yes.
That was a jump.
IRB to Wing Hang, right?
Yeah. Stand by, changing from standardized to.
Standardized.
At that time, we sort of said that it was 0.6 percentage points uplift.
0.6.
Roughly.
% or 0.6 percentage points?
Percentage points.
Percentage points. Okay. The other thing, of course, was that DBS and UOB both said that the securities portfolio, there was a hit in the securities portfolio under FVOCI , whatever it is.
Yeah. Yeah.
Was there an impact on yours or?
Yeah. We also do have, but we looked at that quickly to manage and to hedge that.
Mm-hmm.
As we thought about, like, rebalancing our portfolio, reshaping our portfolio, we do look at that as well, because the bond holdings, you know, those bought pre-rate hikes, you know, would have impact on the fair value gains here. We do look at that closely and managing that by hedging where we can. Yeah. We also have been selling off some of those pre-rate hikes portfolios. Yeah. That's why you see some losses in terms of investment gain in our second Q other non-interest income. Yeah. That's part and parcel of our, you know, reshaping our portfolio and managing of our FVOCI impact.
Okay. We will end.