Good morning, everyone, and welcome to UOB's third quarter 2024 results media briefing. Today we have with us our Deputy Chairman and CEO, Mr. Wee Ee Cheong, and our CFO, Mr. Lee Wai Fai. After both presentations, we'll be taking questions from the media. For media who are joining us online, please use the Raise Hand function if you have a question. I would now like to invite our CEO to get us started. Mr. Wee, please. Okay. Thank you. Now, good morning. Thank you for joining us today. As all of you know, globally, there are renewed uncertainties. We are watching developments closely. As an ASEAN-focused player, we see the region being resilient. Supply chain shifts in new FDIs, this could accelerate. Regional economies are growing strongly. Easing global interest rates allows central banks to further boost domestic economy. China recent stimulus should have a positive spillover effect across our markets. I'm pleased to report that UOB has achieved a record high quarter. Net profit was up 10% year-on-year, SGD 1.6 billion, driven by broad-based growth across all business segments and in our key markets in ASEAN. I can feel, I can see the momentum is quite strong, the whole ASEAN market. You can see cut across healthy demand across sectors and geographies boosted our loan book, driven by ASEAN role as a trade hub and related financing opportunities. Rise of the digital economy with companies upgrading their systems and growth of the green economy with rising demand in sectors such as electric vehicles and renewable energy. Following the U.S. Fed rate cut in September, we see positive consumer sentiment in ASEAN markets. Our cards and wealth fees continue to grow double-digit year-on-year for the first nine months. Synergies from our Citi acquisition have kicked in. Our customer base in the region continue to grow. Cross-sell synergies are bearing fruits, notably in CASA penetration across all four markets. We will focus on this. On the balance sheet front, our asset quality is resilient with strong provisioning. Specific provisions were higher, mainly due to one-off factor during integration of the Thai Citi portfolio. Delinquencies of the Thailand unsecured book have peaked, and are normalizing. Business is intact, and revenues are picking up. Our full-year credit costs remain within our guidance of 25 to 30 basis points. We will continue to maintain healthy level of capital and funding. In short, we are confident of where we are today and how we can capture opportunities ahead. ASEAN is a bright spot amid global uncertainties. Our clients are expanding, investments are flowing, and digital innovation driving demand for services. As an ASEAN-focused bank, ASEAN growth story is our growth story. We are uniquely positioned to capitalize on the tailwinds of strong mega trends with our extensive regional network and capability. Our multi-year investment in standardizing regional IT platforms are now yielding benefits. Our FDI advisory unit set up in 2011 has supported more than 4,500 companies to expand into ASEAN, and we are the only bank to have signed MOU with government investment agencies across key ASEAN markets. We expect sustained revenue growth across our businesses and will continue to invest in building capabilities in our key ASEAN markets. For guidance, we expect high single loan digit, double-digit fee increase led by cards, wealth, trade-related fees, higher total income, cost-to-income ratio between 41%-42%, and total credit costs at 25-30 basis point. Our strong capital position also allow us to consider capital management initiatives. Thank you for your support. I will pass over to Wai Fai to elaborate on our financials and performance of our retail and wholesale business. Thank you. Thank you, Cheong, and thanks for joining us so early. I hope you enjoyed the tour that the group come with you. Back to our results itself. Our third quarter core net profit grew 10% quarter-on-quarter and 11% year-on-year to a record SGD 1.6 billion, with core ROE at 14.3%. Net interest margin was stable at 2.05% as loans margin widened on proactive deposit cost management. Loans grew 2% or SGD 5 billion from last quarter, contributed by broad-based wholesale and mortgage growth. Fees income was at a new high of SGD 630 million, supported by healthy trade and wealth demand, as well as picked up in card fees. Trading and investment income was very strong at SGD 709 million, boosted by all-time high customer flow, treasury income, coupled with exceptional performance from trading and activities. Asset quality remains stable, with NPL ratio unchanged at 1.5%. The highest specific allowance this quarter was mainly from Thailand operational merger issues, which we have addressed and will normalize in the next two quarters. Total credit cost on loans was at 34 basis point. Our capital and funding position stayed resilient, with CET1 at 15.5% and NSFR at 116%. A little bit more detail on the numbers. I said, core profit for the quarter rose 10% from last quarter and 11% from a year ago to SGD 1.6 billion. Total income grew 10% quarter-on-quarter, we are very encouraged by the momentum, this is happening across all revenue lines. The one-off cost relating to Citi integration has reduced significantly by more than 50% from last quarter, with Vietnam as the last portfolio to complete operational day one sometime next year. On the business front, Group Retail registered total income of SGD 4.1 billion for the nine months of 2024. In constant currency term, this was 1% higher than a year ago. Healthy growth in CASA, card billings, and wealth management fees helped to cushion the pressure on margin, especially in the mortgage area. Total income for group wholesale banking is 5% to SGD 5.1 billion amid the competition for high-quality assets. The competitive pricing impact was offset by strong investment banking activities, along with steady growth in CASA and trade loans. Our margins. Net interest margin was stable at 2.05% this quarter, while net interest income picked up from a longer day count, also because of loans volume growth. Loans margin improved 5 basis points to 2.56% as we proactively managed and brought down our deposits cost of funding. Interbank securities margin declined, mainly due to the lower interbank use. On our fees, net fees income of SGD 630 million is a new quarterly record. Loans-related fees remain strong, backed by double-digit trade growth. Card fees passed SGD 100 million level, along with the sustained wealth momentum led by strong bancassurance and unit trust sales. On our treasury and trading, customer treasury income rose to a new high at SGD 270 million this quarter on increased hedging demands and higher business flows and market volatility. Other trading investment income surged above the SGD 400 million as we capture trading opportunities and recorded exceptional gains from interest rate swap unwind. Core expenses for the nine months was up 5% from a year ago as we continue to build regional capabilities while maintaining tight cost discipline. Staff costs for the quarter rose in tandem with income. These are mainly in bonus provision that we set aside. IT related expenses picked up from strategic tech investments. On an enlarged income base, cost to income ratio improved to 41.5%. Overall, our asset quality remains stable, with NPL ratio unchanged at 1.5% from last quarter. The higher NPA for individuals was largely due to the little bit of the friction that we observed in the Thai retail operational OD1 in Thailand. I think we have since addressed the issues. Moving forward, the NPA will be normalized. For the wholesale portfolio, new NPL formation declined. In fact, recoveries and write-off more than offset this increase. On the credit cost, net credit cost rose to 36 basis points this quarter, with total credit cost at 34 basis points. The increase in specific allowance was mainly due to delinquencies in the Thai retail unsecured portfolio following the OD1 issue that I mentioned, these have since peaked and were normalized by the first quarter of 2025. The highest specific allowance also contributed by prudent collateral markdowns on a few selected corporate NPLs in the U.S. and Hong Kong, as we step up recovery efforts on this account. Total credit cost for the nine months was at 27 basis points. We expect credit cost for the full year to remain within our guidance of 35 basis points-30 basis points. As at September, the group total allowance was SGD 5 billion, of which SGD 3 billion was from non-impact assets. We continue to set aside general allowance for the growth in our credit portfolio. Our overall NPA coverage remains strong at 98% or 210% after taking collateral into account. Loans grew SGD 5 billion or 2% from last quarter, driven by broad-based wholesale trade loans alongside the higher retail mortgage. Year-on-year, we grew 5% at constant currency. Customer deposits grew steadily by 3% quarter on quarter, with continued expansion in wholesale and retail CASA. Our overall CASA mix increased to 53.6%. Our liquidity position remains sound, with LCR at 141% and NSFR at 116%, both well above the minimum regulatory requirements. Our CET1 strengthened to 15.5% following the implementation of Basel III reforms in July of this year. On a fully loaded basis, our CET1 will be at 15.2%. With that, I conclude my presentation and pass back, Len. Thank you, Mr. Lee. We'll now take questions from the media. For those dialing in on Teams, please use the raise hand function if you have any questions to ask. Let's start with those in the room first. Could we get the first question? Chanya? Yeah. You're always the first one. Good. Congratulations on the good numbers and also the share price increase. Is it? Yeah. Oh, I didn't see. It opened up 3%. Oh, I didn't look at. As I walked in. Yes, so congratulations. Thank you. I would like to pick up on the end of your presentation, you mentioned capital management. Yeah. Could you share, your competitor yesterday set a huge share buybacks program. Is this something that you are considering? I think given the new Basel III requirement, you can see the capital is quite strong. We can do a combination of things. Firstly, we can grow, right? ASEAN is growing, that is that we can take full advantage of the strong capital to grow. Secondly, as what you said, we are also actively, hopefully by end of this year, we can actually look at how we can take full advantage. Maybe capital management will come in. I will discuss closely with my CFO, see how we can take full advantage of that. Meaning that you will consider. Yeah. Definitely buyback by the fourth quarter? Yeah. I think we are looking at all options. All options. Okay. Because if we can't utilize the capital for growth, we have to find some way to return it back to shareholders. I see. Definitely share buyback will be an option that we will look at. Higher dividend or whatever it is. I think this is something that we are looking at. Would your investors prefer higher dividend or share buyback? How can you- If you're an investor, what would you prefer? What would you prefer? Oh, of course, dividends. I prefer dividends. Yeah. Maybe different investors has different view. Yeah. Long-term investors, some of them prefer share buyback. Yeah. Some of them have capital gain tax on dividend- Oh outside Singapore. There are various consideration because we have a wide range of shareholders, right? We have to look at the interest of all institutional and also our retail. The retail investors probably like higher dividend. Okay. That's very obvious. We have to balance both. Major investors. Yeah. Major. This is something we are still, it's premature to discuss now. Yeah. We are looking at it. I think we are in a good position to talk about. What is the size of your excess capital that can be employed to the full advantage? technically, we have always been comfortable with our 13.5 to 14 CET1. technically between 15 and 14 or 1%, with our RWA 252, probably talk about a size of between SGD 2 billion to SGD 2.5 billion of excess capital. that we can actually look at. Like I said, we will utilize that to grow. partly also to re. If you look at RWA, 1% of 252 is SGD 2.5 billion. I see. Yeah. Just another thing that Wai Fai mentioned earlier about, you said something about staff bonus, because cost rise in line with provision for staff bonus. Can the colleagues here be optimistic about bumper bonus? We are quite clear that we have a staff program that must be in line with performance. If we do well, I think to be fair, shareholders expect higher dividend, staff also expect higher bonus. I think we are being fair and something that we manage, and we will look at between the headcount growth and bonus, because that's how we manage the staff to also push productivity. I think it's a balance that we look at. We appreciate the hard work done by staff, especially with all the OD1 that we are seeing outside all over. We appreciate that, but like I said, it's something that we will have to consider. You know, today two third of our staff is actually outside of Singapore. Yeah. You look at Malaysia, you look at Thailand, you look at Vietnam, Indonesia, right? We are focusing on the region. As long as the region is doing well, I think no reason for us to shortchange. Oh, wow, shares keep going up. The share price keep going up. What is it? I'm sorry, what you say? Up 4%. Any other questions? John? Since you're considering what to do with the excess capital, I wonder, with the completion of the acquisition of Citibank and soon the Vietnam integration will be completed, would you consider another acquisition within your core asset markets? I believe there is an Indonesian bank for sale now. Yes. Which bank for sale? Indonesia. Indonesia. It is something we are always on the lookout. Ultimately, it has to be the right fit. Okay? The last thing we want is to make any acquisition that derail our organic growth. The growth is quite robust. You can see the tailwind is very strong. Any acquisition that you make, I think is going to take a lot of management time. To manage the integration of the system, the people, the culture, and all this. I think we are mindful. We are also, not because of that, we miss out the opportunity. I have a team of people actually actively looking at it, right? To see opportunity. You look at the Citibank. It's the same thing, right? After so many years of not doing anything. I believe the acquisition of Citibank actually boosted the overall branding of the bank as well as the customer base that we acquired. Thank you. Ma'am? Yeah. I just want to ask a couple of questions. One on interest, well, mainly on interest rates, and one on capital. What is your NIM sensitivity likely to be based on higher inflation in the U.S. and fewer interest rate cuts? Maybe we just end up at 4.5% in the Fed funds rate. How would your portfolio book look at that? Okay. We have published that we are now less sensitive to We know interest rate path, right? This is how fast and the speed at what. We always say that every 25 basis point- will affect around 1.6% to margins, will affect us probably in the region of SGD 70 million-SGD 80 million. You think about it, if it's 100 basis point cut- it's a SGD 300 million-SGD 400 million profit. It's really significantly less than what we've got. Mainly because we actually was now a little bit more sensitive. We move into CASA that is driven, and we have also repositioned our portfolio in view of this cuts. I think now there are markets saying that it might not be as deep. I think it's something that we will watch. Technically, if not as deep, it will be beneficial to margin. Okay, technically, but we have to watch. It's still early days in the U.S. A lot of times I do agree some of the actions that's being proposed is inflationary. Inflation might not come down as fast as they can. Actually we watch that. The 10 years have reacted. Market has always moved ahead. Yeah. For all you know, next month it'll come back. We can't use market. Very difficult to- We are watching that. By end of the day, stability is very important. Especially for ASEAN. You look at the interest rate coming down, you can see the loan growth is picking up. it's a combination of- Yeah. Right. Yeah. Okay. The other part is, okay, for your CET1, you said that the transition is 15.5, and your fully loaded is 15.2. How come the difference between your transitional and your fully loaded is a lot- Less less than your peers? I can't compare my peers. Okay. You know. How does it work? Okay. Sorry. This is the question, right? Basically, what Basel does is, today everybody have their own models. Okay? I give you the benefit of the models. Because of the different in standard, okay, what Basel wanted to standardize is that you don't have big variation. Okay? You don't have one bank having better capital treatment than another, or they rank that the RWA is less. what the Basel does is it actually set a floor. Okay? Which means that floor is based on standardized. Standardized means they based on prescriptive parameters. they don't care what your model says. They says that, "Okay, for this is the parameter, this is the range. Basel, after that, in the transition. Meanwhile, if you are very aggressive, you can have that benefit because your RWA will be low. Comes to the final, it will be floored at 70%. If you are below that, you have to move your RWA up. Okay. That's where a lot of the countries Singapore is actually quite unique compared to Europe. In Europe itself, it's actually the reverse, because a lot of them, the RWAs and all, same thing, has been a little bit aggressive. This is what Basel wants to do to standardize risk treatment- Those that are very aggressive, has benefited a lot with aggressive model, will be normalized upwards. We are probably a little bit more conservative in the models. We also have been positioning the models on this new Basel. It's not new. It's something that is anticipated. Things like benefiting SMEs and all something that we are working on. As a result, we are less affected. Your floor is nearer the Basel- Yeah. A. Yes. We are more conservative. Okay. You're at 15.2%, which would be higher than the transitional. No, still lower. Still lower. Higher than your peers. No, we are all roughly around, yes, the transition that's reported. Okay around 15.6. Okay. It's no longer the difference in 17, 18, 19. Yeah Okay, versus the 15. Okay. The transition we have fully loaded. Okay, got it. Hi, good morning. I want to know, based on where you think rates are going, how would fixed deposit rates and mortgage rates change for you? We have to go according to the market, right? If the interest rate drop, our mortgage will drop. As it is, I think it's holding. What is the housing loan rate now? 2.6%, right? Some foreign banks have gone at 2.4%. No, you see, maybe just to be fair, when interest rate drop, we want to lock in asset prices for switchgear. Mortgage, technically, people lock in two to three years. Hopefully you lose money now, you make money later. That's how the intention will be. If the forecast of the interest rate drop is not as aggressive, and the market will have to rethink and recalibrate. Because if the market is aggressive, then technically we don't mind losing money, but hopefully making them later. This is how the market calibrates. The second part is really asset opportunities growth. I think mortgage, especially in Singapore, is a very good price spot. At the best, it's not only competitive, but it's actually very good risk. Yeah. We- Very low risk. Yes. Hardly default. Yeah. There's a lot of competition in that space. Because on the risk-adjusted, on the return basis, it's still very attractive. Like I say, it's something that we have to be competitive with the market. It's just like the rest of the mortgage. I think that's where we are. The only thing is the overall economy. It's attractive, job employment is there, is fine. You have an unemployment situation, then you look at China's situation, right? In terms of your securities book, because the treasuries and all that, yields have all gone up. What do you plan to do? Do you plan to sell extended or long, short? I don't know. Now you can go long. Yeah, you're right. If you can catch and you trust the U.S., but I always tell people that it's very frightening, the volatility of the 10 years. When we are here, just after the last talk, the 10 years was at probably 3.5, 3.6. Yeah. After we leave the room, one month later, it's 4.2. Okay. They are trading more than junk bonds. That is the sensitivity we must be aware of. It is right that at 4.5 it's attractive, that we have actually started to extend some of our books, especially in the liquid asset portfolio. that we hope to carry. We are selectively doing that. The other part was really the interest differential between the Treasury 10 years gap is. Thus, most of our books are liquid asset. is in government securities Singapore. That's the other one that we are actually looking at. Yes, we are looking to extend. We prefer to use our liquid, than to do other synthetics. We didn't do as much in synthetics. Most of it is natural extension of my liquid assets. Of course, the I'm sorry, I have to point at her. What was the problem, the issue with the Thai book, the Citi? Thai book, not Thai reporter. Oh. The Citi, yeah. Okay, I think we just want to be very transparent. She probably knows about it. She probably knows about it. You see, in the Citi portfolio, number 1, it was a very big portfolio in Citi that we took over. We knew that things cannot be perfect. We took the opportunity to normalize a few things. Okay, there are a few things that we changed in there. Like some of it, we changed billing cycle. You changed. Billing cycle Billing cycle. Because sometimes you got Citi pay at certain time. Yeah. Now our cut-off is certain time. The other part was we call it multiple card. Some people have two, three cards, right? When you make a payment, you specify which cards you want to pay. Okay. Our system use a portion. Yeah. There are some of these changes, that actually, as a result of these difficulties, because of this unfamiliarity, some of them default. Yeah. Because when you're not I think just we open the other part was really, Thailand itself also increased the regulatory minimum payment due- From 5% to 8%. From 5%. There's various combinations that we have. As a result, we have actually shifted a lot of people to stabilize. Okay. Within two months, we actually stabilized that portfolio. We also deviated some resources to look at customer service rather than to chase payment. As a result, we agree that some of this backlog started to build up. The good news is, like I said, within two months, we actually addressed the customer issue. We look at recovery. Okay. We have fully recovered by now. Yeah. We have fully recovered. I think the worst is over with. What you see is that, yeah. I think people now are paying on time. Yeah. Now, I have to address this historical portfolio, which we have also got offered relief programs. Okay. Give them a period of time to pay. This definitely in our mind, we are very clear it was a blip that we had. It was quite stressful to the entire operation. In fact, we sent people to actually stabilize, because our primary responsibility is to stabilize so that customer complaint. Okay. All those talks about social media. Yeah we are ready for. I think that's the good part of it. I think it's behind us. Now, we can look at synergies with you because all these problems that we have. We can actually grow. It's actually a very big type of portfolio. The credit cards and all are pretty strong. I think that's where we are. Yes, we had a little bit of hiccup, but we have addressed it, and I think we just have to face it. Okay. It's behind us, and the good thing is we still can absorb it. My credit cards and all, I still can absorb it. It's not that it has gone such enormous amount, but yes, when you look at quarter-on-quarter, there's a blip in there. We will have to fully address it and take it. I think the good news is, it's behind us. Customer service is back to normal. When we look at the cross-sell that we go into, the amount that customers are actually now opening up, like I said, even some of the CASA accounts and all. We say Citi never really concentrate on deposit. Today, I think talent penetration, now it has reached 30%, 40%. Okay. We continue to push that up. Also from zero cross-sell, some of this we are back to it, the spending per customer has also increased. I think that also we are quite confident that it's behind us. Like I said, we also measure customer feedback, we actually measure social media very closely. Also, the good news is a lot of those noises. Unfortunately, it was something that no acquisition, that's why it's so difficult. We learn. Okay. We learn, good thing is our, what we call the recovery programs, was fully effective. We saw all the indicators, past due, customer complaints, number of calls that's been picked up. They're all back to normal now. I have a question. Yeah. Will you guys revise any new guidance now that President Trump is in the office now? I think it's still too early to tell. Far, yes, I can see the sentiment is more inflationary. I think also depending on who are the people that he is seeking with. Right. On the face of it, yes, the interest rate may continue to stay higher, longer. Based on his strict policies, the inflation. I don't want to make that assumption yet. With ASEAN, do you think that investors will continue to invest in ASEAN? Yeah. I think so. Have Chinese money worry about. Yeah. I think the flow is coming. You look at even Johor. Yeah. On top of it, we have seven branches there. You can see the inquiries are very strong. Some of the Chinese companies, they already committed to invest SGD billions or half a billion SGD. Right? Some of these customer that we refer. There are opportunities, but it cannot translate to dollar and cent at this point. A lot of inquiries. What you plan for Johor, are you going to open more branches? You're going to have more branches? Yeah. We are looking at opportunity. We are looking at opportunity. We see how we can relocate some of the branches. With the acquisition of Citibank, we have added 10 branches. Oh. 10 in Malaysia. Yeah. In Johor, seven branch. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, seven branches. Relocate. So- This is something our people will look at it. See how we can capture it, how we can take advantage of the trade zone. Right? Mm-hmm. What about, I think, the Sultanate and that is trying to revive Kuantan City. Yeah. They're trying to encourage the banks to open branches. Yeah. Have you looked at it? Have you been there? We are exploring. It's still a bit too early. They have not formalized it. I think definitely there are more upside than downside. Okay. Let me put it this way. More upside. Any other questions? Do we have questions from those online? Any other questions from those in the room? Thoughts. Okay. UOB TMRW, okay, let's ask about UOB TMRW. In the first half, you always said that you get new customers for UOB TMRW. What's the update on how many customers and- As the latest, I think- No. Our organic acquisition is on track. I think we added, like I said, 1 over a million. Now we have probably, the last time we guided was 8 over, now we are 8.3, they are adding up. Okay. They are a very important acquisition tools and especially outside of Singapore. Malaysia was something that, and we saw that number coming into Malaysia. Okay. Thailand, we had it a bit earlier, and with the Citi, I think it's increasing, but I think the exponential rate is happening in Indonesia, and partly Indonesia, because these are the ones that where our branch network is not as strong. It's happening, and the other thing that now that we'll be focusing on was to put capabilities into digital. I think that's what we want to do, and you'll see more of it coming out. If you want to look at cross-sell, you have to do all this, the digital capabilities have to be improved. That's where we are focused on, both digital and the other part was really compliance related. Okay. We do have a lot of issues if you're not careful, with the mass market. customer onboarding and all was something. that now we pay a lot attention to scams and all. Okay. How do we enable people? When you are too easy, people get worried. Where we add friction. That's the balance now that we have to look at between security and friction. The top four markets we are operating in, I think we do engage the parties a bit, right? The NPS score is actually top three for UOB. Mm-hmm. Nice. I think the acceptance seems to be quite good. It's top three in the markets you are in involved? Yeah. Could you also share colors on the wealth flows and your wealth management? Yeah. I think the flow is quite robust. I think this time around, I think the flow will be more ASEAN. Not so much on the North Asia. Okay. You can see. ASEAN because it's growing well, so the flow is coming from ASEAN, that in a way is in line with our market. Yeah. Is it like the increase in AUM during the quarter? Yeah. Was it primarily net new money or was it because of trading gains? No, net new money. New money. New money? A lot of it, like Cheok said, is from the consumer space. Yeah. It's not in the private banking space. The consumer space is where our asset franchise is very strong. Okay. I think we are. That also gives testament to the cross-sell that we are trying to do in the region. We are quite hopeful, like Cheok said, the momentum that's coming out of ASEAN, and people are now competing. Once the confidence is back, we hope Of course, people always say that the amount and the penetration rate is different from North Asia, really because of the risk. Okay, the wealth that we are selling are really an assurance unit trust- similar products, okay, that we want to look at the interest rate protection, et cetera. We have some in the private banking space, but not as big, where they look at equity account and all. I think we are quite happy that now the growth is in the consumer space. I think where Jacquelyn and Susan now that's in there. Pushing into the region, those are now getting effect, which is really after OD1, the distraction, right? We're actually getting there. Yeah. To be specific, right? The growth AUM is about up 9%. Okay. The net new money is about SGD 4 billion. SGD 4 billion. SGD 4 billion. Is this SGD 4 billion from the previous quarter or? Quarter. This quarter. Quarter-on-quarter. Quarter-on-quarter. Quarter-on-quarter. Thank you. Wow, okay. How did you get SGD 4 billion, quarter-on-quarter? Where did you get that? No, two things, right? One side, the consumer space, right? Oh. One side is there is stability and there is some relief. At one time they will move towards equity, now more people go towards fixed income. The fixed income space is where it's very active, right? Especially unit trust. If you don't do, if FD is too low, right? Too low, sorry. You look for alternative. Okay. That's where we think that we are able to offer solutions and all. Also the risk. Bancassurance is still a very core product. That we are doing very well in. You're happy with just doing bank, are you? No insurance, no interest in life insurance? Life insurance. We went through that. Yeah. It's just a different management. It's very capital intensive. Oh, okay. We probably want to focus on banking. Okay. No problems in North Asia on the credit front. I think one of your peers mentioned that there was a big. Okay. about- To say that North Asia has gone out the woods is not true. Yeah. Okay. We have been monitoring it very closely. I think we recognize our NPLs are here. We had some of those people asking us how come, and we are asking ourself as well. How come we recognize North Asia? How come it's not popping up? Based on our own, we are now looking at activities to try and accelerate. settlement. You look at North Asia, at least there are more transactions now. Okay? In recent months, there are more transactions. Previously, there are a lot of speculations but no transactions. We have more transactions, and one of the reason why we increase our collateral value, like I said. is because we actually wanted to just take the haircut and get out. Hopefully we want to clean the books out. It is something that is well managed. We don't have new accounts that's coming in. that we are not aware of. It's something that we are managing, and we think that we are at the tail end. Okay. We are definitely at the tail end. Some of the credit cost is due to valuation. One, two. Yeah. It's okay. I think it's good to be conservative. Any observations on the new Thai prime minister? Say again? Thai prime. Observations on the new Thai prime minister at the house. Asset. The asset quality outlook can be? Oh, the asset quality. We are the only Singapore bank. We are highly committed. Okay? I believe I'm confident, let me put it this way. No reason not to be. The flow of ASEAN, Thailand is still one of the biggest country. Like you can see the Chinese, the EV cars, and all these things, right? The tourism is coming in. No reason. As long as they do the right thing, and they are business people, they do the right thing. We have been in Thailand for over 20 years. In fact, the third week of this month, we are celebrating our 25 years. 25. 25. Okay. I will be there. It will be a major celebration. We have three buildings in Thailand. Okay? And you see my headquarters in. That gives a lot of commitment. I think it's important. You want to be in a market, you have to be committed. That translate to customer confidence. Right? Country like Vietnam too, we are the first Singapore bank to be locally incorporated. We are also in the process of acquiring a piece of land. Oh to build our head office in Taipei, in Vietnam. In Hanoi? Ho Chi Minh City? Ho Chi Minh, yeah. This is all ongoing because end of the day, these are all my major ASEAN subsidiaries. We are locally incorporated. We want to make customer feel that we are committed, and we are willing to put fixed asset, build our own headquarter. Mm-hmm. Is this year your 90th year? Yes. It's 90th. Is there going to be like, are you looking at a special dividend- to reward your Singaporean shareholder? You don't 90 is a- Is a- Yeah. I hope so. Okay. All right. If there are no other questions. Yeah Thank you all for joining us this morning. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Enjoy your