The survey was sent out on Nov 23, before China rolled back its tough COVID-19 rules.

but after china scrap its zero covid19, the situation will be a complete different situation

https://english.news.cn/20221214/ba4ad11822914268b32393113772edee/c.html

 

https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/OCBC.SI/

 

https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/DBSM.SI/

 

https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/UOBH.SI/

 

the proxy of sg switzerland' s status

&ldquo Where we&rsquo re missing is on the inflation side. And we&rsquo re missing by a lot.&rdquo
&ldquo It will take substantially more evidence&rdquo for the Fed to conclude that inflation is falling enough to stop raising rates. &ldquo We&rsquo ve made less progress than expected on inflation.&rdquo Those were merely a few of Mr. Powell&rsquo s press-conference comments as reporters probed for signals that the Fed is concerned it may be raising interest rates too high, too fast. Mr. Powell really, really, really wants markets to believe there&rsquo s not an impostor behind that  Paul Volcker  mask.
The question is why he&rsquo s had to try so hard to persuade markets, which still aren&rsquo t buying in futures markets that the Fed will keep raising its fed funds rate above 5% in 2023. The central bank increased that benchmark rate to 4.25%-4.5% on Wednesday.
One reason for doubt may be that recent hints from other Fed officials have suggested there are worries on the Federal Open Market Committee over the pace of rate increases. But there were no signs of internal dissent on Wednesday as the FOMC policy statement was unanimous. Another reason may be that Mr. Powell has sometimes been unclear himself in his press conferences about what the &ldquo neutral&rdquo rate of interest, or what the terminal rate for increases, will be. There were no self-contradictions this time.
The most important reason for market doubt is that Mr. Powell and the Fed are still rebuilding their credibility after the 2021 fiasco of claiming inflation would be &ldquo transitory.&rdquo The Fed stuck to that line for months even as prices rose, and the result has been the worst inflation in 40 years. Markets still may not be sure that Mr. Powell and the Fed won&rsquo t wilt under political pressure when the jobless rate begins to increase or there&rsquo s a financial scare bigger than the crypto meltdown.
The proof on that question will only come in the seeing. But meantime it&rsquo s worth recalling how far the Powell Fed has been forced to travel in its estimates for higher rates in a mere 12 months. Last December the median forecast by Fed officials for the fed funds rate in 2022 was 0.75%-1%. In March it was 1.75%-2%, then 3.25%-3.5% in June, 4.25%-4.5% in September, and now it&rsquo s 5%-5.25% for 2023. The trend underscores how badly the Fed misjudged inflation and the medicine required to break it.
The Fed is now admitting that Americans will pay a price in slower growth and higher joblessness because inflation took off, though it may still be underestimating that price. Its median forecast for economic growth for both this year and in 2023 is a mere 0.5%. But CEOs are nearly unanimous in anticipating a recession this year.
&ldquo I wish there were a completely painless way to restore price stability,&rdquo Mr. Powell said Wednesday. &ldquo There isn&rsquo t.&rdquo
He&rsquo s right and the honesty is welcome. But it&rsquo s all the more reason to regret the mistakes of easy money and fiscal profligacy that brought us to this unhappy pass.

Markets retreated slightly after the announcement. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 142.29 points, or 0.4%, to 33966.35. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note edged up to 3.503% from its Tuesday level of 3.501%. Yields rise as prices fall.
The latest increase capped a year in which the Fed raised rates from near zero  at the fastest pace since the early 1980s  to fight inflation, which is running near a 40-year high. Fed policy makers are entering  a new phase of policy tightening  in which they are trying to determine just how high to raise rates. Fed Chair  Jerome Powell  said in a news conference it was &ldquo broadly right&rdquo that slowing rate rises to more traditional quarter-percentage-point increments as soon as the Fed&rsquo s next meeting, Jan. 31-Feb. 1, would provide the best way to manage the risk of over-tightening.
&ldquo It makes a lot of sense, it seems to me&mdash particularly if you consider how far we&rsquo ve come,&rdquo Mr. Powell said. But he said twice that the Fed hadn&rsquo t made any decisions about upcoming meetings, and that the outcome would depend on the state of the economy and borrowing costs.
Rate increases work with what economists call long and variable lags, which means the central bankers may not know for a year or more  if they have tightened too much or not enough.
In new economic projections released after the meeting, most Fed officials  penciled in plans to raise the fed-funds rate  to a peak level between 5% and 5.5% in 2023 and hold it there until some time in 2024. In September, they anticipated lifting the rate to around 4.6% by the end of next year.
After Wednesday&rsquo s press conference, investors in interest-rate futures markets expected the Fed to raise rates to a level just below 5% by March before pausing. Bond markets rallied when Mr. Powell hinted the Fed might raise rates by a smaller step of a quarter-point, or 25 basis points, in February, said  Lee Ferridge, a senior economic strategist at State Street Global Markets.
&ldquo It&rsquo s like the new projections didn&rsquo t happen, quite honestly. And I&rsquo m surprised the market is shrugging it off so confidently,&rdquo said Mr. Ferridge. &ldquo The expectation is the economic data will be so poor&rdquo by the end of the first quarter &ldquo that the Fed will stop hiking.&rdquo Mr. Ferridge said he wasn&rsquo t convinced the Fed would dial down the pace of rate rises again in February. &ldquo If the data comes in hot, then I think they could still go 50,&rdquo he said.
Fed rate increases this year have hit asset prices and are causing a significant slowdown in rate-sensitive sectors of the economy  such as housing. But in recent weeks,  longer-term bond yields have tumbled  as  investors anticipate  a speedy decline in inflation, possibly due to a recession next year.
The fed-funds rate  influences other borrowing costs throughout the economy, including rates on  car loans, mortgages and business debt.
Fed officials say they combat inflation primarily by slowing the economy through tighter financial conditions&mdash such as higher borrowing costs, lower stock prices and a stronger dollar&mdash that curb demand. As a result, any easing of financial conditions while the Fed continues to battle inflation could raise the risk of a deeper or longer downturn if it prompts the central bank to keep lifting rates.
Mr. Powell suggested the Fed would raise rates to higher levels for longer if broader financial conditions don&rsquo t &ldquo reflect the policy restraint that we&rsquo re putting in place to bring inflation down.&rdquo
The projections released Wednesday showed considerable divergence over what might happen after next year. Around one third of officials expect to hold the fed-funds rate above 4.5% through 2024. Most officials anticipate cutting rates by around 1 percentage point in 2024.
Mr. Powell said no officials had projected rate cuts next year and that they weren&rsquo t likely to consider lowering interest rates until policy makers are confident inflation is moving down to the Fed&rsquo s 2% goal in a sustained fashion. Data released since the Fed&rsquo s November meeting have provided a mixed picture of the economy. While domestic demand has slowed and the housing market  is entering a sharp downturn, the job market  has remained strong  and  declines in gas prices  could help sustain consumer spending.
Inflation has also slowed in the past two months. Consumer prices  climbed 0.1% in November  from the previous month and 7.1% from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Tuesday, both down notably from comparable previous increases.
The Fed pays close attention to so-called core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy categories, as a better predictor of future inflation than overall inflation. Over the past three months, core prices increased at a 4.3% annualized rate, the lowest such reading in more than one year.

Fun Fact:

After call for consolidation in the early 2000s, OUB being the smallest of the local " Big Four' " , it was a prime target for acquisition. It was first bid by French Bank, BNP Paribas in Mid 2001 which failed and speculation increased that OUB would become a target for one of the three other local banks, or merge with a local bank.

In June 2001, OUB nearly become DBS when DBS made a hostile takeover of $9.4 billion back in June 2001. This drew a competing bid of $10 billion from UOB which was seen as a friendly one, gaining the support of the OUB board and management, as well as the backing of founder, Lien.

 

https://www.smart-towkay.com/blog/view/280-the-history-of-banking-in-singapore

 

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/uob-buy-citigroup-consumer-businesses-4-countries-2434911

 

https://huddlestonjones.com/2017/11/02/uob-nominates-wong-kan-seng-to-succeed-hsieh-fu-hua-as-chairman/

 

https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/quote/U11.SI/history?period1=946857600& period2=1670976000& interval=1mo& filter=history& frequency=1mo& includeAdjustedClose=true

 

https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/quote/U11.SI/chart?p=U11.SI

 

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/banking/ex-dpm-wong-kan-seng-appointed-to-uob-board

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/UOB:SP

https://hk.finance.yahoo.com/news/%E8%AA%BF%E6%9F%A5-%E6%9C%83%E8%A8%88%E9%87%91%E8%9E%8D%E6%A5%AD%E7%95%8C%E6%96%99%E6%98%8E%E5%B9%B4%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E7%B6%93%E6%BF%9F%E5%8F%8D%E5%BD%88-%E6%A8%93%E5%83%B9%E5%89%87%E7%BA%8C%E8%B7%8C-050110662.html

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLm1v2YOKVw

 

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2022/12/12/2003790554

 

https://www.blackrock.com/au/individual/macro/meet-the-strategist-ben-powell