Singapore banks rival Wall Street titans in long-term shareholder returns

[SINGAPORE] For all the attention lavished on Wall Street’s biggest banks, Singapore-based investors would have done just as well – or better – backing lenders on the Republic’s shores over the past two decades.

Across five-year, 10-year and 20-year periods, total shareholder returns (TSR) delivered by Singapore’s three banks – also South-east Asia’s largest lenders by assets – have matched, and in some cases outpaced, local and global benchmarks.

Leading the pack is DBS , whose 20-year TSR in Singdollar terms stood at 955.7 per cent as at last Friday’s (Apr 17) close. Put another way, every S$1 invested in 2006 would have grown to about S$10.56.