Banks court regional SMEs while waiting on S'pore Inc

THE proposed bid for Wing Hang Bank by Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) prompts a closer look at the way the three homegrown lenders are gunning for small and medium-sized (SME) businesses on a regional level, especially as SMEs here are more preoccupied with cost than expansion.

Growth from the SME market in Asia is clear: bank revenue from SMEs in this region stood at about US$80 billion in 2010, and should more than double by 2015, showed a McKinsey study that was cited by DBS Group Holdings late last month.

DBS said in its …