Temasek says sees value in U.S. and UK banks

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore sovereign fund Temasek, which spent billions of dollars on shares in Merrill Lynch MER.N, sees value in banking stocks in the United States and Britain, a senior executive said on Tuesday.

"The financial service industry is one we believe in," said Manish Kejriwal, Temasek's senior managing director for investment, International and India, told journalists. "It's a proxy to the economic growth."

"We recently concentrated on U.S. and UK primarily because we see value."

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar and Kevin Lim; Editing by Jan Dahinten)