# United Overseas Bank Limited — 1H 2025 Interim Financial Results Media Briefing

- Event: 1H 2025 Interim Financial Results Media Briefing
- Date: 7 August 2025
- Kind: automated speech recognition (ASR) transcript, unverified, no speaker labels
- Source webcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kOkYbs-KF8
- Duration: 53:06 (~6,685 words)
- Presenters (per UOB's announcement, not per-turn): Wee Ee Cheong (Deputy Chairman & CEO) and Leong Yung Chee (Group CFO)

Unofficial machine transcript. Prepared by SMID Research from the issuer's public results webcast recording by automated speech recognition, without a full manual check: expect mis-heard names and figures. No speaker labels are given; timestamps refer to the recording. Not a company publication. UOB's results webcast is the authoritative record. Copyright in the briefing rests with United Overseas Bank Limited; contact contact@smidresearch.com for corrections or removal.

---

[0:00] Good morning, everyone, and thank you for coming in a little earlier. Welcome to our second quarter, 2025 results media briefing. Today we have with us our deputy chairman and group CEO, Mr. Wee Chong and our group CFO, Mr. Leong Yong-chi. As usual, Mr. Wee will begin by giving a broad overview of how our franchise has done and the operating landscape we are in. And then Mr. Leong will then go into more details on the financials and business performances. After both presentations, we will take questions from the media. I now would like to invite the CEO to get us going, Mr. Wee. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you for joining us today. The high core environment remains fluid. With geopolitical tensions and shift in global trade in a multi-fold world.

[0:52] Amid uncertainties, regional economies are holding firm. ASEAN, Baung Nhau Yimiu, shows resilient growth. ASEAN fundamentals remain strong with competitive cost structure, improving infrastructures and deepening trade linkages. This position the region will adapt and thrive in a complex global landscape. Amid global uncertainties, our core business and financial performance health steady. Operating profit for the first half year rose 3% from the same period last year driven by strong fee growth. After taking a conservative approach to increase our reserve, net profit came

[1:43] in at 2.8 billion down 3% year-on-year. Net interest income was flat as long growth offset the impact of declining interest rate. Margin compressed in line with the external environment. But we continue to proactively optimise our cost of funds and rebalance our portfolio. Fee income shows strong momentum up 11% led by loan and well fees and robust treasury income supported by healthy time flows. This performance reflects the strength of our diversified business order. We continue to pace our costs, keeping it flat year-on-year.

[2:33] We remain vigilant on asset quality. Our overall loan portfolio remains sound with MPL steady at 1.6%. Total credit costs were higher at 34 basis points, including the pre-emptive general allowance set aside to ensure healthy provision bubbles. Our balance sheet remains strong with CET1 ratio at 15.3% and robust liquidity ratios. The board has recommended an interim dividend of 85 cents per share, representing a payout ratio of 50%. We also paid the second tranche of the 50 cents special dividend

[3:19] to mark UOB's 19th anniversary. For the second half of 2025, while the external environment remains challenging, we see pockets of opportunity. Governments across the region are also stepping up to push businesses through the transition. This includes recently announced 100,000 SME grants in Singapore and fiscal and sector-specific measures in other countries to keep growth on track. As a long-term player, we remain committed to our clients, including SMEs, standing by them through economic cycles, supporting them with working capital,

[4:04] cross-border financing, and digital tools to help them scale efficiently. Our strategy is clear and consistent, focused on ASEAN long-term potential. The region offers relative political stability, resilient fiscal positions, and growing economies. Its competitiveness as an FDI destination is supported by well-connected infrastructure and a young, outwardly mobile population. In a multi-polar world order, opportunities arise with regional integration and trade diversification. At the same time, mega-trends, including digital and green economies,

[4:49] will continue to drive investment and generate growth. We are well positioned with our extensive ASEAN footprint, deep connectivity to China and global market, and a diversified plant base. On the wholesale front, we are seeing strong traction across multiple revenue drivers, rising car car balances, growing regional trade flows, and supply chain finance, robust trade and loan fees, strong treasury income from active client flows. We are intensifying our focus on emerging opportunities, digital and green economies, and infrastructure investment, aligned with our ASEAN integration agenda.

[5:38] Our retail franchise has gained significant scale, following the city acquisition, where our customer base has grown to more than 8.4 million. We are well positioned to write on the region's rising affluence and Singapore's position as a leading global wealth center. We see robust growth in car buildings, underpinned by pan-regional partnerships, our latest being the principal partner for the Michelin Guide Hotel, reinforcing our leadership in lifestyle privilege across dining, entertainment, and travel. Our city integration is complete across all four ASEAN markets, with Vietnam customers successfully aborted last month.

[6:29] The focus now is on deepening customer engagement to unlock further growth. Since the city acquisition, our ASEAN IV franchise has delivered robust growth in customers. CASA, WellAUM, Fine Security Receivable and car building. The position for sustainable growth. We have been reshaping our business franchise. We see good progress in moving towards more diversified and resilient revenue mix, including connectivity, fee base, recurring income and asset like businesses. We have been investing to strengthen our capabilities and digital platform that will support our ambitions to scale. Our strong balance sheet enables us to address risks and

[7:19] to seize the right opportunity to grow. This transformation takes time. And we are confident that it will reinforce our foundation for long term growth. We have previously suspended guidance due to heightened volatility and limited visibility. We are now reinstating our this year guidance. Full year name of 1.85 to 1.9 percent, factoring in three expected rate cards, second half of it. Low single digit loan growth, focusing on quality assets. High single digit fee growth driven by card, wealth, trade

[8:06] and investment bank. Flat operating costs. Net credit costs of 25 to 30 basis points. And we expect further top up to boost general provision buffer pre-emptively. As usual, we remain committed to our 3 billion capital distribution plan. Now I will hand over to my CFO, Yong-Chi to share more. Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. You allow me I'll take you to the financials update. This quarter we reported a net profit of 1.3 billion dollars. It's 10 percent lower quarter on quarter and 6 percent lower year on year.

[8:53] The net interest margin narrowed by nine basis points for the quarter to 1.91 percent. This is driven by a sharp reduction in benchmark rates. In terms of the net fee income. It was six hundred and thirty six million dollars. The decrease from last quarter is high, but this is our second highest quarter. Investment banking activities return to normalised levels while wealth fees were subdued as we took a more cautious approach amid macro uncertainties. In terms of treasury and investment income. It has softened reflecting lower trading and liquidity management activities, but customer related treasury

[9:42] income sustained momentum. On asset quality NPL ratio was stable at 1.6 percent. Total credit costs on loans were at 32 basis points. We continue to maintain prudent pre-emptive provision reserves. Our capital and funding positions remain robust with CET ratio at 15.3 percent with post dividend payout included and NSFR at 118 percent. Now let me share an update on the performance for the first half. With this set of results. We delivered a positive operating profit rising 3

[10:29] percent year on year. This was largely driven by double digit growth in fee income across wealth management, investment banking and credit cards. The performance underscores the continued strength and diversification of our franchise. Cross to income ratio improved to 43.5 percent. This reflects our continued focus on cost discipline across the bank. As we set aside pre-emptive allowances amid the macroeconomic uncertainties, our net profit after tax moderated 3 percent year on year to 2.8 billion dollars. This translates to a return on equity of 11.7

[11:14] percent. In the next section, we have included some new slides focused on our business segment performance. These slides are designed to provide deeper insights into our income drivers and strategic levers that are shaping future growth. These efforts are beginning to bear fruit. Moving forward, our focus continues to unlock value and monetize these investments for sustainable long term growth. We'll start with a dive into our group retail business. Group retail delivered a strong performance for the first half of 2025. It reports a 1.1 billion dollars year on year

[12:03] that's an 11 percent increase. This was the result of our focus on Casa wealth and cards, which counted income pressures from lower rates from the market as well as competition. If you look at the deposits, our retail deposits have exceeded 200 billion for the first time. Driven by robust Casa growth and anchored by strong customer value propositions. Our wealth management income recorded double digit growth. 15 percent. This was boosted by effective conversion of deposits into invested AUM.

[12:49] While AUM continued to build new momentum, net new money coming into the bank this quarter was about three billion dollars. Heartbelling grew year on year, 12 percent, supported by our ASEAN franchise, partnerships and enhanced rewards offerings to our customers. In terms of the customer base, you have exceeded 8.4 million customers as at the end of June 2025. Again, a testament to the differentiated lifestyle offerings and consistent value delivery to our customers. Asset quality for this segment remains solid with credit costs nearly half to 22 basis points. The operating friction in Thailand we experienced

[13:37] last year as a result of the integration has subsided, further stabilizing our retail portfolio quality. Our next turn you to the wholesale banking business. Our wholesale banking business delivered a profit before tax of 2.2 billion for first half. This was down about 12 percent year on year, but reflected the impact of lower benchmark rates in tense competition for quality assets as well as a rise in allowance from a low base. Transaction banking contribution remains a cornerstone of performance. It constitutes about 50 percent of wholesale banking income.

[14:24] This was supported by an enlarged HASA base and 12 percent year on year growth in our trade loans. This underscores a deeper client engagement because of our integrated cash, trade and supply chain platforms across multiple markets. In terms of investment banking, they achieved a record fee in the first half of 2025, demonstrating strong execution and client confidence in our advisory capabilities. Our diversified growth strategy continues to gain traction with stable income contribution from our non real estate sectors at 69 percent and cross-border income at 26 percent.

[15:13] Our regional connectivity and franchise development is going from strength to strength. Expenses rose marginally by about 5 percent. This is true investments to enhance our product capabilities and deepen market presence across our CMs. Allowance increased to $167 million, primarily due to a collateral meltdown for a few non-systemic borrowers, while overall portfolio quality remains resilient. Global markets sustain strong momentum in our customer treasury income, supported by continued client demand for hedging and investment products.

[16:01] Non-customer treasury income also improved from lower cost of funds, capturing market opportunities across bonds, equities, effects and rates amid financial market volatility. Net interest income eased by about 3 percent quarter on quarter to $2.3 billion. As asset growth helped to cushion the impact of lower net interest margin. Net interest margin declined nine basis points to 1.91 percent this quarter. Again, I mentioned earlier that this was primarily driven by sharp reductions in benchmark interest

[16:47] rates. We give a breakdown of how the impact came from different areas. The SORA, which is the Singapore overnight rate, fell by 50 basis points, reflecting abundant domestic liquidity, partly driven by safe haven inflows, while the Hong Kong interbank off-road rate for high vol was at its lowest since 2022. These movements affected our asset pricing, contributing about 23 basis points declined to the net this quarter. Although there was pressure on asset yields, this was mitigated by our ongoing proactive efforts in managing our own cost of funds.

[17:35] And this includes re-pricing of fixed deposit and savings account rates. And also a mix of our asset liability. In terms of fee income, Ross fee income reached $829 million this quarter, marking the second highest quarter on record. Again, this underscores the strength and diversification of our retail and wholesale banking franchise. Loan related and credit card fees remain resilient. Investment banking fees return to normalised levels after an extraordinary first quarter. Wealth management fees were impacted as we took a more cautious preservation focused approach supporting our customers amid uncertainties in

[18:23] the market. Expenses declined 2% quarter to 1.5 billion. This reflects the group's disciplined cost management initiatives. Cost to income ratio rose to 44.3% due to the lower income discord. We will continue to exercise this how we manage costs and spends, but continue our targeted investments in talent and technology to support our franchise growth and regulatory requirements. Turning now to asset quality. New NPA formation edged up this quarter. And this stemmed from one large corporate

[19:09] account in the US. This was within expectations and with higher write-offs and recoveries during the quarter, our NPL ratio remained at 1.6%. The highest specific allowance this quarter resulted from one new US NPL account. As mentioned, this was within our expectation and preemptive allowance had already been set aside earlier. And net credit costs were at 32% points this quarter. For preemptive general allowance would usually be written back and reclassified to specific allowance upon and a countdown leading to NPL. We continue the same level of general provisions this quarter as a prudent measure to

[19:57] strengthen the coverage in view of near term macro uncertainties. As of June 2025, our total allowance was $4.8 billion, of which $2.8 billion relates to allowance for non-impaired assets. Our general allowance coverage was maintained at 0.8%, while NPA coverage remained adequate at 88%, or 209% after taking collateral into a fund. Draw slows through a healthy 4% year on year and 1% quarter on quarter. This was mainly from corporate and mortgages in Singapore. Our liquidity and funding positions remained sound

[20:47] with LCR 141% and NSFR at 118%, both well above the minimum regulatory requirements. CASA deposits continue to grow steadily, leading to an improved CASA to the total deposits of 56.5%. Capital position stayed robust, T-E ratio at 15.3%, even after accounting for the FY 2024 final dividend and special dividends as part of the capital distribution strategy we announced earlier. In appreciation of our shareholder support, the board has declared an interim dividend of 85

[21:32] cents per ordinary share, reflecting our commitment to a consistent dividend payout ratio of 50%. We are also pleased to report that as at the end of June 2025, about 13% of the 2 billion share buyback program that we had announced has been completed. We are on track to fulfil our commitment on the capital distribution to shareholders by 2027. With that, I conclude my presentation. Thank you. Thank you, Yun-Chi. We'll now begin the Q&A segment. For those darling in on Teams, please use the raise hand function. We'd like to ask a question. Maybe we'll start from those in the group.

[22:19] Any questions? Yes, please. Congratulations on the numbers. And please, could you talk a little bit about the tariffs that have been slapped on many countries in Southeast Asia in the past few weeks? And second question to Yun-Chi who mentioned how safe haven flows. Could you give more colours on this and whether such flows were more extraordinary than previously? Based on our detailed analysis of our portfolio, I think the first order impact is manageable. The what? First order impact.

[23:04] First order impact. People are directly affected by the tariff. Thank you. I would say 1.3% of our total loans to exporter. With 25% of sales exported to the US. So at each by minimum and trade loans make up of about 10% of total. So the first order impact, I think, is generally quite manageable. We are a little bit more concerned about the second order impact. First, the food effect consumer spending. People stop investment, consumer stop spending. So that is something that is still quite fluid.

[23:53] We are monitoring closely. But I would say generally we are here to support our customer, I think, for the special needs. And you can see the government also setting up committee to look at proactively how to manage this. And we are on top of it. If any customer that require any assistance, any help, we are here, especially in volatile environment. We always seem to help our customer to the structure. Thank you. On the second question, Chanyepan, the safe haven flows question. I think I mentioned that our net new money for the quarter was three billion dollars.

[24:38] So we are still seeing flows in terms of wealth and flows into our franchise. I think this reflects the fact that Singapore is very well positioned. It's all the uncertainties happening around the world. I see the flows of three billion Singapore dollars in the second quarter. Yes. Did it help with the Singapore dollar strengths as well? I think the same dollar effects rate has other factors affecting it, given how open we are as an economy. I see. Okay. You see, as you asked the question, given the tariff situation, we see it's very volatile. The AOM that would say 60% stay as a fixed cost.

[25:26] Oh, wow. It hardly because we are conservative, we are more cautious. I don't want my customer to lose money. Right. So as a result, rather sacrifice on some of the wealthy, I would rather let them stay conservative. There is always a better opportunity out there because these are all businesses. They are really taking the front end risk of the finding the business. The last thing I want is whatever capital they have put with us. They also encounter the risk. So we are quite conservative in that sense. So we just to clarify, you said about 60% stay as

[26:11] deposits. You refer to 60% of the net new money. Yeah. So that 60% overall, overall, overall, the deposit, yeah, 60% is in deposits, 40% invested. I see. Okay. Thank you. This increase in liquidity does help to support the same dollar strength. But it actually lowers our risk as a result. Good for mortgage. Good if you're on this problem. Yes. So we have a question from Zhao Pao. Yeah. Hi, good morning. Thank you for the sharing and the calculations on the numbers. So actually the book already asked my first question, but could you help me clarify like many ASEAN

[26:59] countries will face, and you also mentioned that you are concerned about the second order impact from the tariffs. So could you help me clarify that part of the reasons for trimming your long growth forecast this year? Oh, we are financial intermediary, right? It's not whether I want to trim, I will trim. At the end of the day, it's also customer demand. If customer don't feel comfortable, even the outlook of the market, they will slow down. Right. So it's the end result of demand and supply. And we continue to chase after the quality loan to start off with. It affects for corporate as well as individual

[27:47] customer outlook. So that is the case, create worries for whether businesses or individuals use system, as he's actually tapering off in terms of demand. And then from our perspective, the competition for quality assets become more intense as us and our competitors chase after growth on the quality of the goods. I think the question is about the competition from your peer bank. We have been more and more severe competition, especially in credit card sector. So I'm just wondering how will you manage to come to the top of the set? And what is the main strategy? Credit card?

[28:32] Yeah, credit card. Well, credit card, I think we do have some benefit because during the COVID, we bought a buyover city bank before. That would give us a strong customer base. And if you have a strong customer base, the ability for you to do things in a more competitive way, to deal with your partners, to deal with your merchant, because you have the skill, you can bargain better and you also can offer better quality product. This is what exactly we have to do. We have about 8.5 million customer base across the

[29:22] whole ASEAN region. We will continue to deepen our lifestyle products. So hopefully people will start to see a UB is a card that you must have for you to enjoy the lifestyle, for you to enjoy the tailor's suite, for you to enjoy different kind of. This is where, because end of the day, consumer businesses is scared. We are trying to take advantage. We are the big elephant in ASEAN. So we should be able to capitalize on that. Hopefully that takes time. And also given a customer base, we are cross selling a lot of them. No one is just credit card.

[30:10] The well product, make them open account, improve our customer, close our cost of cost. So this is a multi-pronged approach that hopefully it's not every quarter you can. We are moving towards that direction. Obviously the execution is important. And we like to see more of that because otherwise it's quite a point of having quite a big customer base, you are not taking advantage of that. That scale of customer base allows us to differentiate some of our offerings. I think your question earlier mentioned about what differentiation our lifestyle rewards is really

[30:57] geared towards some of the customer preferences that we see across our base. And that's primarily around travel, entertainment and dining. So our rewards are a card member of us. You would see that we've been very focused in terms of value propositions to balance along those three lines. Thank you so much. And the savings accounts, you have lowered the interest rate account. When can we see the effects from it? Maybe the third quarter? We announced it in May. So it will flow through and take some time. Yes. We should see it reflect through the financials in the third quarter. In the third quarter. Thank you. Question from the business side. Hello, my name is Eras.

[31:43] I have a few questions. First on the range data guidance. I think Gen Q4, our projection was high single digit long growth, double digit feed growth. Now it's sort of moderate to low single digit long growth, high single digit feed growth. I think it was over about 2% to more than that. Give a bit more color on this lower titans. I think generally it's a reflection of our You look at most of the Asian region despite they are strong, they have a foreign reserve. But then the growth is also quite limited given the territory. So we cannot grow for the sake of growing. And the GDP growth of the country is not as high.

[32:29] So this is why the first quarter last year. We did not know if any a little bit more certain. Of course it's not a big sign. We think based on our own calculation, we think the low growth will be quite subtle. If you look at what has changed in 2024 to now, in each of the countries that we operate in, in each of the countries that we operate in, the GDP growth forecast has all been filled. And in every market is operated in. The benchmark interest rates for these countries have also been reduced. And there is also the FX movements

[33:15] that Tanya Pong was referring to earlier. The environment has shifted significantly. But for some of these metrics, if you look at the underlying numbers that we are projecting, it actually shows the strength of the franchise that the fact that we don't grow, we are still able to grow. The fee income, we are still able to grow. But the income numbers are affected by asset pricing and market volatility. So I think look at the underlying franchise, the strategy that I said we would execute is paying off in terms of how we are shaping our portfolios. If you look at the region, it believes gold. But if you translate the same dollars, the same dollars is high. And we are evolving in the same. But if you say Malaysia, in all these countries, they are good.

[34:03] I'm interested on housing loans, right? What sort of the growth outlook for the local growth in the 25? I don't even know the strategy thing has to do with that. I think we projected about a single dip. Yes. I know the market seems to be quite hot. But at the end of the day, I think we are generally to be selected. This is a very uncertain world. And I think it's a rough thing. Customers shift more towards floating rate mortgages and give them that interest. They have to go down to the companies. I don't know if that number one enough. No, we don't have it on hand. But there was good low momentum. I think we look at our second quarter numbers. And this is corporate and retail.

[34:50] Our low in growth is up 4% year on year. And 1% quarter on quarter. Even on a constant current basis, you are seeing somewhat similar numbers. So the underlying momentum in Jones is intact. I mentioned that low in growth primarily was driven by two portions, corporate, and mortgages in Singapore. That's underpinning some of that lingo. Sorry, the final question for me. You sort of expect hiring to maintain the flat for H2 rate. According to the side points, we have about 1.3% year on year for H1. You sort of expect. What was the... You expect hiring to remain... Hiring. For the rest of the year. I mean, given some of the assets that you mentioned. Recruitment. I guess you might hire for natural attrition.

[35:37] But overall headcount is expected to go up. I actually saw 1% drop in the headcount. Yeah. Right? 1% increase in staff costs. 1% drop. But not headcount. Yeah. Headcount, yes. Why? Natural attrition. I'm not sure. The total number for H2 is back to... I think we're keeping very prudent management in terms of overall expenses across the bank. And I think in this sort of environment, there are certain things that we need to continue to do. Our regulatory compliance requirements amidst all these scams and KYC AML matters. Making sure IT is not obsolete. So obsolescence replacements are something we need to continue to invest.

[36:22] And technology to enhance productivity efficiency. Those are areas we need to continue to invest. So overall, I think our position on expenses is very prudent. And we see that we've actually reduced it over the bottom. You see, all these expenses is very strategic in H2L. Of course, we can try to make ourselves more efficient. But before you get yourself more efficient, you need some basic tools. Because you look at how ASEAN coverage, we are the most comprehensive news. The number of countries we are in. So can you imagine the investment that we have to do? We have to replicate all this country. So as a result, I think if the income drop,

[37:08] our expenses will be a little high. I think that is an investment that we have to put in. By 10 years from now, then you start to see this is the investment work. You cannot based on quarterly, quarterly, very difficult. So in terms of people strategy, I think we adopt a very calibrated approach in terms of managing headcount. In good times, you don't want to over-hire. But in bad times, you also want to protect employment of our people as well. And this is our philosophy. This is how we've been managing our workforce. Yes, now is the bad time or the good time. No, uncertainty.

[37:57] I think I will say, wow, I think you read my speech, I think the underlying is still quite strong. The volatility is something that we need to manage. If you have a surami coming, you have to be strong. Otherwise, you get very fine. So the underlying, you look at Singapore, Malaysia, that they are generally okay. Even in Thailand, they are facing some headwind. But generally, you can see the tourism is not coming. But end of the day, you ask yourself, you still have 100 million population, talented people. They are always strong in hospitality. One day, they will reach out.

[38:43] Sorry. So now we even heard about the Republican nominee for 2028 presidential election. How long this uncertainty is going to go on? And I mean, like with your strong capital base, are you still seeing any M&A on the cards for our UOB? For what? For M&A. You just finished the integration with- Yeah, yeah. Wow, I think he is taking care of the M&A. I think we are always on the lookout, right? We are always on the good opportunity. We look at the Citibank cuisine. We are in a position to acquire, especially outside of Singapore, for us to attract or to improve, to increase our customer base is not easy.

[39:33] Because we are competing with all the big domestic banks, like in Asia. So that to me is a good opportunity for us to have a good headline. If there are anything coming along, why not? This is something we're always on the lookout. Would it be more on the retail side or on corporate side? I would address it this way. And if on our franchise, in terms of the footprint that we want today, we have the locations, we have the footprint that we want. And we don't need additional licenses in each of these markets. And if we look at M&A opportunities, it's opportunities where it fills scale or capabilities. So more assets rather than friendship.

[40:20] Rather than branches, adding more ATMs, that wouldn't be a priority to this digitalized environment. However, if you look at our philosophy and approach to M&A, we have been very, very prudent on discipline because the integration of acquisitions is not easy. Even the Citi integration took us four years. And it takes away management bandwidth. So we take M&A very seriously and it's not an exercise we take lightly. The last time we did a major M&A acquisition before Citi was almost 15 years. So this is a philosophy that... And also I go what Yung Chi said.

[41:08] Even you look at integration, the deal from Citi Bank is broken. We could have just done four countries at one point. But we make the effort of every country. Why? It's time consuming. The synergy may not be so immediate, especially doing it, but we are doing it in a very calculated approach because we don't want to lose the customer base. We want each country to learn and then we replicate some of the learning to another country. So you spend that kind of money. The last thing you want is to make your customer angry and walk up. It's time consuming.

[41:55] It may not translate into cheaper costs to us. But in the long run, I think that is a good way of finding it. You look at our logo right by you. You go to stay on that. Otherwise everything right by you, but you do it in time. I think the results speak from that period of time, which is around 2021 to now. I think Sio mentioned in his speech earlier on, rather in terms of actual number of customers, whether it's in terms of AUM, card buildings, unsecured lending, all of these have seen compound annual growth for us. That franchise has come together very nicely. We have a few more minutes. Any last questions?

[42:41] Yeah, you have a few more questions. I don't have a few, but I may have to send them in later. Okay, so I have a few. The first one is the large corporate account in the US. Can you tell us which sector it is? Then my second question is what is your exit name? And the third one I think is the B you mentioned, intensifying initiatives in digital and green trends. You share more color. You want to take on the first two questions. The US account was real estate related. Okay. The exit name for the quarter is 1.84. Okay, very good. And then the third question was on digital and green.

[43:27] So this is something that I think we invest heavily on digital or tomorrow. I think that's important. And they take advantage. And all of you know, we announced our MOU with Accenture. The whole idea is to take full advantage of the partnership, take full advantage of Accenture, being specialized in AI to see how they can help us speak to market to improve our customer service. End of the day, no point, I always say no point to have a big customer base and your customer service. And we are still a journey to move.

[44:15] We are not happy with the customer service. We will continue to improve that. If there's any mistake that we make, I apologize to our customer, but I think we are genuinely want to help our customers to improve our service in a digital way, in a more systematic way, so that we are more productive. Based on the exit, so are you expecting a formal environment because your forecast is called 1.85 to 9? That's one question. And then there was on the non-interest income line, there was an 11% Q&Q decline. I'm just wondering what that was. And also for the treasury,

[45:02] I mean, was it part of the interest, your interest rate management, was that part of the issue then? And then the treasury sales, whether it's bank or customer, that's a second. So those are the little questions there. And then there's a 15. Okay. Your end, your parcel, your set one at final is 15.1%. Does that also include the dividend payout and the capital payout? Yes. So that question, we have seven, go back to the... Go back to the... So on the NIM, our guidance was given at 1.85 to 1.9. And your question around exit was at 1.84.

[45:50] How did you get back to that 1.85? I think there are three major assumptions on why we think it's going to get there. First, SORA fell quite significantly in the second quarter. It fell 50 basis points, even though the rates in the U.S. actually had... I think SORA maybe had over... I will show whatever it's like. Our house view is that the three months SORA will probably end the year at around 1.7%. That's one of the major assumptions, underpinning that. Isn't that lower than now? 1.7. We think there's probably a little bit more room because we are expecting three more rate cuts from the Fed

[46:38] through the course of this end of the year. There will still be some impact, but probably magnitude of the transmission should be more moderated. The second impact that I think your colleague mentioned earlier in terms of one account, savings rate, while we've announced it in May, the impact of some of our initiatives in terms of reducing from in-house and so on will be worse in the second half of this year. Now, the third is the high-bore... Although the Hong Kong dollar, in terms of our boat exposure, is small, it's only about 6%, but there is still an impact because of the significant shift in the Hong Kong rate.

[47:25] We do expect that the present suffer 1% in terms of the one-month high-bore rate should recover and stabilize around 1.6% by the energy there. So the high-bore rate actually fell almost 200 basis points of the just for perspective. So if some of these assumptions pan out, I think that expectation in terms of where we get back to in terms of the NIM. What about the wholesale funding? Were you trying to let go of some of the wholesale funding and move it? The interbank and securities margins actually did constant. The liquidity in the system is actually quite flush. So the movement was entirely mostly driven by asset re-pricing

[48:13] because of the rate smoothness. Any final question? Sorry, there was a second question. The second question around the non-interest is the component. So if you recall one of my slides I mentioned earlier on, actually we have the second highest quarter on record. This is in 2Q? In 2Q. 2Q is our second highest record. Our second highest quarter on record. And the only reason it dropped was because the first quarter was our highest on record. And that was predicated upon a very chunky quarter for investment banking where they saw extraordinary flows

[48:59] in investment banking generated. So I would say it normalized in the second quarter. It's not of treasury income. No, I think it's quite sustained. Okay, okay. Can I just ask one last question? Because I think in Mr. Wie's speech, which I didn't quite expect, you said there will be, you are looking at sort of asset like business, I mean more asset like high ROE business. I think DBS also talked about this before. But what sort of... It's the sector that we are looking at. You look at our trade asset, our cash management days.

[49:45] So like, you have to deal with about 40-50% of the wholesale. Of wholesale, yes. Like of the total loan for your trade loan is about 10%. So you can see this tunnel. That will improve our asset. And I said in terms of risk management, it's flow business. So you can't see it on the quarterly basis. It's accumulated. So this is why our people are spending a lot of time talking about supply chains, talking about connectivity. This is hard work. But once you get them connected to you,

[50:33] the business is flowing. Because if you look at that number, the green shoots already, that trade income today is growing at about 12% growth rate. But you look at the customer treasury income that we are able to generate from that. That's actually growing very strongly. If you think about it, if you have trade loans and trade assets with customers, you naturally would lead to helping them with that hedging. That affects the rate rate hedging. And with that, naturally, each of you are proactive about it, lead to operating the TASA account. So if you look at our TASA ratio today for wholesale bank, that's at 57%. TASA ratio is at 57%.

[51:19] The same mentality we adopt in our retail business, our retail TASA ratio is 56%. So these are very important elements in terms of looking at how to grow stickiness of the franchise and shape it so that you have better proposition. So I think this is important. So I hope you as a reporter don't just analyze on a quarterly. It's very easy for me to achieve better quality. I just build a low base, easy. This is the one that is shifting the balance. We are a big tanker. One, two years, two, three years from now, you can set the steel down.

[52:10] Otherwise, in the past, it's all property based. It's very easy. Something happens. So we are trying to manage our reasons. We are trying to continue to invest in our technology platform and our cash management to improve our TASA, to improve our cost of funds, so hopefully the margin is a lot better. Also on supply chains, foreign, direct investment, and my story, it will be a lot more visible to everyone. At the moment, it's sort of a decimal crime, but that is a good reason. You said you spent about 800 million Singapore dollars a year

[52:55] on technology alone. Okay, thank you. Yeah, and give TASA a good increase. Thank you.