Group Wholesale Banking

Annual Report 2017

Group Wholesale Banking

Group Wholesale Banking helps companies and institutions optimise their business operations and cash flow, manage risks, expand into new markets and manage their capital needs by providing tailored financial solutions, services and sector insights. We develop trusted partnerships by focusing on our clients’ long-term interests and helping them meet their strategic objectives. Our unique combination of local, in-country presence and expertise, astute Asian market insights and regional network connectivity enables us to help unlock Asia’s potential for our clients.

2017 Highlights

Generated strong year-on-year increase of 8.8 per cent in overall non-loan revenue, driven by growth in our cash management (10.4 per cent) and trade finance (13.7 per cent) businesses and Global Markets (5.1 per cent) activities;
Maintained resilience of the asset quality of our overall wholesale loan portfolio, despite pressure from oil and gas and related portfolios;
Accelerated our investments to deepen our integrated solution capabilities and to enhance our domestic and cross-border product lines;
Launched Southeast Asia’s first virtual accounts payable solution to help our clients automate their account reconciliation processes;
Expanded our client coverage teams in our key markets and established industry-focused Sector Solutions teams to provide tailored, industry-specific solutions;
Supported the regional expansion plans of more than 500 new and existing clients with our Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Advisory services, bringing the total number of companies we have helped to more than 1,600;
Increased our efforts in facilitating China-ASEAN business flows along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) through new partnerships and our new Kunming branch in Yunnan, China;
Appointed as the sole financial adviser and sole acquisition finance provider for one of the largest public market acquisitions in Singapore since 2014;
Secured top position in Bloomberg’s Singapore Borrower Loans Mandated Lead Arranger League Table; and
Named Best Transaction Bank in Singapore at The Asian Banker Transaction Banking Awards 2017, and received more than 20 other industry awards across the region in recognition of our Transaction Banking capabilities.

Supporting Financial Institutions in Their Regional Expansion

Our Global Financial Institutions Group combines our local market knowledge and regional expertise to support our Financial Institution clients which include banks, non-bank financial institutions (central banks, diversified financial, public sector, insurers and real money funds), global property funds and financial sponsors. We help them to grow their business and to drive their profits across Asia and the gateway cities in Australia, US and UK by offering comprehensive solutions in cash management, trade financing, interest rate and currency derivatives, hedging, specialised finance structures and capital markets.

Our commitment to creating value for our clients has enabled us to establish ourselves as a trusted partner for their regional business. To serve the strategic needs of our clients better, since 2015 our team of more than 100 dedicated, sector-specific coverage bankers and analysts across UOB’s global network has been strengthening our coverage of this client segment. In 2017, we successfully grew our client portfolio and deepened our existing partnerships with leading financial institutions. This enabled us to achieve healthy revenue growth of 15.7 per cent for the year.

Enhancing Our Expertise and Sharpening Our Specialisation to Meet Our Clients’ Risk Management Needs

Tapping the strengths of UOB’s extensive network, credit ratings and product partners, we offer solutions ranging from bullion and commodities, secured financing and bank risk trade financing to cash and liquidity management and global funds origination.

During the year, we continued to build on our capabilities, with our specialised client coverage team working with various product partners to provide customised and distinctive financial solutions to meet the risk management needs of our Financial Institution clients.

We have also established our capabilities in structured finance origination across the capital structure spectrum, from debt and equity to hybrid security and financial derivatives, to drive targeted client origination opportunities across the UOB franchise. In addition to the suite of core solutions from Global Markets, Transaction Banking and Investment Banking, in 2017 we helped our financial institution clients to optimise their capital and liquidity positions. In doing so, we assisted them in managing market risks against the backdrop of continued market volatility and potential disruption by emerging FinTech players.

With immense business opportunities arising from the BRI, Greater China remained as one of our market priorities with structured finance and infrastructure financing among our key focus areas.

Creating Client Value Through Working Capital, Cash Flow and Liquidity Solutions

Group Transaction Banking is focused on developing financial solutions in cash management, trade finance and financial supply chain management to help our clients optimise their business operations and cash flow, and enhance working capital efficiencies.

To support the increasing internationalisation of our clients’ businesses, we have in place experienced teams of cash and trade product specialists in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Our regional operating model also ensures that we capitalise on the strengths of our existing in-market franchise to provide our clients with seamless, integrated and borderless expertise and solutions.

In 2017, we enhanced our financial supply chain management capabilities across Asia, helping our clients to connect efficiently with their supply chain strategic partners. This was done by streamlining our credit evaluation framework and through a disciplined onboarding model, enabling us to address working capital gaps of key counterparties for our MNC and large corporate clients. As a result of our stronger client engagement, the revenue contribution from our financial supply chain management business more than doubled for the year.

During the year, we also launched a range of liquidity management solutions that helped large corporates to achieve greater levels of self-funding and to enhance their interest earnings, which in turn improved their treasury management. For example, our regional multi-currency interest optimisation solution assists our clients in improving the yield on their cash holdings across various entities and locations without the physical movement of funds. Through the implementation of this scalable solution, we enabled our clients to enhance the returns on their operating funds without affecting the efficiencies of their entities’ day-to-day operations.

As a result of our sustained efforts in helping our clients meet their needs and overcome their challenges, our overall revenue grew strongly by 10.3 per cent year on year, driven by a 13.7 per cent increase in our trade income that included strong growth in the Financial Institutions segment. We also recorded a 10.4 per cent growth in cash management revenue, attributed to a positive performance by our Singapore dollar clearing business and continued development of our regional capabilities. Group Transaction Banking contributed to more than a third of Group Wholesale Banking’s total revenue in 2017.

We received 23 industry awards across Asia in recognition of our competitive and customer-centric product offerings, our highly competent cash and trade product specialists and the constructive collaborations we have with our clients. These awards included Best Transaction Bank, Best Cash Management Bank and Best Trade Finance Bank in Singapore at The Asian Banker Transaction Banking Awards 2017, Best Bank in Singapore at the Asiamoney Cash Management Client Satisfaction Awards 2017 and Best Cash Manager in Singapore in the Euromoney Cash Management Survey 2017, as ranked by corporates and non-bank financial institutions.

We also received multiple awards for our cash management, treasury, working capital, supply chain finance and structured trade solutions across our Southeast Asian markets.

Annual Report 2017

Group Wholesale Banking

2017 Highlights

Other Key Sections

Quick Links