Group Income before Operating Expenses, Operating Expenses and Ratio of Operating Expenses to Income Before Operating Expenses


Income Before Operating Expenses
1999: S$3,028.9 million (+61.5%)
1998: S$1,875.8 million

Operating Expenses
1999: S$1,064.7 million (+41.1%)
1998: S$754.4 million

Ratio of Operating Expenses to
Income Before Operating Expenses
1999: 35.2% (-5.0 percentage points)
1998: 40.2%

The increase in operating expenses was mainly due to the full year's impact of POSBank, the consolidation of KOB, and higher expenses incurred by DBS Thai Danu Bank (DTDB), DBS Bank Philippines and DBS Securities Group as well as higher consultancy fees. Excluding the consolidation of KOB, POSBank and DTDB, operating expenses would have increased by approximately 23.4%.



Group Customer Loans & Advances and Customer Loans to Total Assets Ratio


Total Assets

Customer Loans & Advances, including Bills Receivable
1999: S$54.4 billion (-3.3%)
1998: S$56.2 billion

Customer Loans to Total Assets Ratio
1999: 51.1% (-5.1 percentage points)
1998: 56.2%

The decrease was due to active management of regional exposure and trimming of low-yielding domestic and overseas loans.



Group Customer Deposits


Customer Deposits
1999: S$82.3 billion (+11.4%)
1998: S$73.9 billion

The Group's customer deposits increased by S$8.4 billion mainly due to consolidation of KOB's customer deposits (S$4.8 billion) and increases in domestic savings and current accounts and foreign currency fixed deposits.