UOB's Q1 earnings up 5.4% on growth in core income

UOB Group reported net earnings of S$807 million for the first quarter of 2017, up 5.4 per cent from a year ago.

Total income rose 7.8 per cent to S$2.12 billion, led by growth in core income, it said on Friday.

The non-performing loans (NPL) ratio was stable at 1.5 per cent compared with the previous quarter, while NPL coverage stayed high at 118 per cent.

Gross loans increased 9.4 per cent year-on-year to S$229 billion while deposits were 1.9 per cent higher at S$260 billion as at March 31, 2017.

The loan-to-deposit ratio remained healthy at 86.7 per cent. Fully-loaded Common Equity Tier 1 Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) rose to 12.8 per cent.