Singapore's OCBC Bank may raise $740 mln - paper

SINGAPORE, May 26 (Reuters) - Singapore's Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC.SI) (OCBC), Southeast Asia's third-largest lender, plans to sell as much as $1 billion ($740 million) of preference shares, a newspaper reported on Monday.

The Straits Times quoted unidentified investment banking sources as saying that OCBC was seeking approval from the central bank -- the Monetary Authority of Singapore -- as well as the Singapore Exchange, for its preference share issue.

The city-state's DBS Group Holdings (DBSM.SI), Southeast Asia's biggest bank by assets, raised S$1.5 billion in a preference share sale on May 15 to bolster its books and fund a planned expansion in China and elsewhere in Asia.

OCBC officials were not immediately available to comment on the newspaper report.

The bank said earlier this month it would not rule out raising funds. (Reporting by Ovais Subhani; Editing by Jan Dahinten)