Singapore's DBS Group, Banque Saudi Fransi ink Asia-Gulf trade deal
Trade between Southeast Asia and the GCC reached about $130.7 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow by another $50 billion by 2027, according to the Singaporean lender.
Southeast Asia’s largest bank by assets, DBS Group, said on Thursday that it had signed a deal with Riyadh-based Banque Saudi Fransi to facilitate trade finance and payment flows between Asia and the Gulf.
What happened: The bank announced that the memorandum of understanding was signed on the sidelines of Sibos, a global fintech summit organized by the Swift payments platform and held in Frankfurt from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2.
The partnership between the two lenders aims to support businesses and end-consumers seeking to conduct trade, investments and remittances, DBS Group said in a statement.
Under the agreement, the two banks will provide trade financing solutions to each other’s clients, including letters of credit, bankers’ guarantees and trade loans. The banks will also explore jointly financing client transactions to better manage risk and expand their respective capabilities.
