Great Eastern Holdings, the insurance arm of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, posted on Tuesday a 19 % fall in fourth quarter net profit, hurt by weak financial markets, reported Reuters.

Great Eastern earned $68.9 million in the three months ended December, down from $85.1 million a year ago.

For the full year, net profit fell 24 % to $385.7 million.   

“The decrease in 2011 (profit) was caused by unrealised mark-to-market losses as the investment climate deteriorated severely in second half 2011, a period which saw credit and swap spreads widening and equity prices declining,” Great Eastern said in a statement.

Great Eastern accounted for about 15 % of OCBC’s earnings in the first nine months of last year.

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