United Overseas Bank Ord (UOVEF) Q4 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Hi, good morning, everyone. Welcome to our full year 2025 results media briefing. Today we have with us our Deputy Chairman, Group CEO, Mr. Wee Cheong, and our Group CFO, Mr. Leong Yong Chee. As usual, Mr. Wee will begin first by giving a broad overview of how our franchise has performed, the operating landscape we are operating in, and then Mr. Leong will then go into more details on the financials and business performances. After both presentations, we'll be taking questions from the media. So I would now like to invite CEO to get us going. Mr. Wee, please. Good morning. Happy Year of the Horse. Thank you for joining us today. Well, as we enter 2026, the global environment continues to remain very fluid. No political tensions, ongoing shift in supply chains, and evolving trade However, operating conditions in our core markets have remained broadly supportive. Across ASEAN, momentum towards deeper regional integration is building up. We look at trade, capital flows, and cross-border investment continue to expand. reinforcing the region role as a key growth engine. This creates opportunities, well-positioned regional banks like UOB to support clients across Asia. Now, again, this backdrop, we deliver a resilient full-year operating profit of $7.7 billion in 2025, 4% down. Our diversified business model remains of all strength. Net interest margins moderated as rates declined, but strong fee momentum across wholesale and retail businesses helped to offset the impact, lifting our full-year fee income to a record high. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, trends were positive. Net interest income increased 4%. Margin rose to 1.84% as we lowered funding costs. Net free income was up 2% while expenses remained flat. On the asset quality front, following our portfolio review in ...