On July 22, 2002, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its counterparty credit ratings on The Development Bank of Singapore Ltd. The ratings reflect DBS Bank's position as Singapore's second-largest bank behind the United Overseas Bank group (UOB) in terms of domestic assets. If DBS' overseas assets are included it becomes the largest commercial bank in Singapore. It also has the largest regional operations of the three bank. Although DBS Bank's operating performance, as denoted by pre-provisioned net operating income ratio of 1.2%, appears worse than its two domestic peers, the less-risky nature of its loan portfolio balances this out. Two-fifths of the loan book is made up of residential financing, which, in Singapore, is low-risk lending. At year-end 2001,
