China and housing loans in focus at banks' Q2 results

[SINGAPORE] Concerns over China and mortgage loans took centre stage for the three local banks, as the lenders took great pains to pick through the details of their loans.

The banking trio beat market expectations, with OCBC capping the second- quarter results season for the lenders on Tuesday.

UOB, the first of the three to report its earnings, recorded a lift in non-performing loans (NPL) from some housing loans in Singapore. This came from some weakness in payments from an isolated set of borrowers who had bought high-end properties for investment. UOB's NPL ratio was, however, 1.2 per cent, unchanged from a year ago.