Singapore bank OCBC sees virus trimming revenue by 2% this year

Singapore, one of the countries hardest hit by the virus outside of China, has already cut its economic growth outlook this year and flagged the possibility of recession.

SINGAPORE: Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp flagged on Friday a 2% hit to annual revenue from the coronavirus outbreak, following in the footsteps of larger peer DBS Group and signalling Singapore lenders may find it tough to keep growing robustly.

Even before the virus outbreak, banks in the city-state had forecast muted earnings growth for 2020 as interest rates soften and lending moderates after a record performance in the last three years.