Today's figures for 2021 results showed that wealth management fees and assets under management at the Asia-based group rose substantially in 2021.

Singapore-based DBS today said that wealth management and consumer banking income fell by 8 per cent in 2021 from a year before to S$5.32 billion ($3.95 billion), with the impact of lower interest rates somewhat moderated by loan and deposit growth.

For DBS overall, it achieved a record net profit of S$6.80 billion in 2021, rising 44 per cent from the previous year and restoring a trend of consecutively higher earnings disrupted by the pandemic in 2020. 

Return on equity rose to 12.5 per cent from 9.1 per cent a year ago. “Strong business momentum” mitigated the full-period impact of interest rate cuts in March 2020 and “exceptional investment gains” the previous year, it said in a statement. Loan growth of 9 per cent was the highest in seven years, while fee income and Treasury Markets income rose to record levels, the group said in a statement.

Fourth-quarter 2021 net profit was S$1.39 billion, a 37 per cent rise from a year ago. 

Wealth management fees increased by 19 per cent to a record S$1.79 billion from higher sales of investment products and bancassurance. Assets under management in the wealth arm stood at S$291 billion at the end of 2021, up from S$264 billion a year before.

The Common Equity Tier-1 ratio – a standard international measure of a bank’s capital buffer – was little changed from the previous quarter at 14.4 per cent, DBS said.

DBS said its board of directors proposed for approval at the annual general meeting on 31 March 2022, a fourth-quarter dividend of 36 cents per share, a rise of three cents per share from the previous pay-out. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the annualised dividend will rise to S$1.44 per share, an increase of 9 per cent.