Singapore's OCBC monitoring Iran war impact on global growth, inflation

Oversea-Chinese Banking

16/04/2026 09:51

SINGAPORE, April 16 (Reuters) - Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC), Singapore's second-largest bank by assets, held its annual general meeting on Thursday, the first under its new CEO Tan Teck Long, who took the helm in January.

Here are some details:

* OCBC Chairman Andrew Lee cited huge uncertainty in the current global backdrop, with the energy crunch from the Middle East war posing a major challenge to Asia in particular.

* He said the bank had run mandatory stress tests across its credit portfolios and clients' exposures, and took comfort from its relatively small direct exposure to the Middle East.

* The bank is closely monitoring whether potentially slower global growth and higher inflation could tip economies into recession or stagflation.

* On private credit, CEO Tan said the lender has no direct exposure to private credit funds and only limited bridge financing linked to investors' commitments, typically backed by strong institutional names.

* The bank expects one more U.S. rate cut this year.

 (Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui and Rae Wee; Editing by Kim Coghill)

 ((Rae.Wee@thomsonreuters.com;))