CORRECTED-(OFFICIAL)-UPDATE 2-Singapore banks

Thu Jul 17, 2008 7:24am EDT
 
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(OCBC corrected details of its insurance arm's exposure to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the last paragraph)

SINGAPORE, July 15 (Reuters) - Singapore banks DBS Group Holdings (DBSM.SI), United Overseas Bank (UOBH.SI) and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC.SI) said on Tuesday they had very low exposure to equity or debt in U.S. mortgage firms Fannie Mae (FNM.N) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N).

"Our exposure to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is not material," a United Overseas Bank spokeswoman said in a statement. No. 1 bank DBS also said earlier its exposure to the two mortgage firms overall was immaterial.

OCBC, Singapore's third largest bank, gave more details, saying it has an indirect exposure to the two U.S. companies through its investment in complex debt derivatives.

"The bank has a total investment of $249 million in corporate CDOs, which comprise diversified portfolios of corporate credits in the US, Europe, Asia and elsewhere. Of this amount, $49 million of the CDOs contain 3 percent exposure to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," OCBC said in a statement.

OCBC said insurance subsidiary Great Eastern Holdings (GELA.SI) has an exposure of S$69 million ($51.11 million) to the U.S. mortgage firms, which was immaterial relative to the total insurance fund size of S$42 billion. (Reporting by Saeed Azhar and Daryl Loo; Editing by Erica Billingham)

 
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