Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, Singapore’s No.2 lender, said it was cautiously optimistic on prospects after posting its best profit in six quarters, helped by stronger trading profit and gains from its insurance unit.
OCBC (OCBC.SI), which completed a US$1.4 billion ($1.97 billion) deal last month to buy the Asian private banking unit of Dutch financial services company ING (ING.AS), is banking on a recovery in Asia’s wealth management activity to boost earnings in 2010.
