Singaporean banks boosting lending to SMEs

Comes as SMEs continue to expand offshore due to a dearth of employees.

Banks in Singapore have been helping the city state’s SMEs expand into Asia over the past decade. This regional push, however, has intensified in the past few years, as business costs become exorbitant and the lack of employees more evident.

This trend has also opened new opportunities for banks to raise their service levels to SMEs. An executive at one major lender said recent measures on manpower and availability of space have significantly intensified the focus on cost, and the need to accelerate the search for alternate bases of operations.

About two-thirds of Singaporean SMEs already have some level of activity in regional markets.

OCBC, Singapore's second largest lender by assets, said its SME loan book grew by about 20% year-on-year in 2012.

UOB Bank said that over the last two years, it saw that SMEs are looking beyond just funding. It has teamed up with government agencies, lawyers and accounting firms in providing an eco-system where SMEs can just come to the bank and get to know what they need to do in moving offshore.