DBS and Nishi-Nippon City Bank (NCB) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to foster greater collaboration and support Japanese SMEs in Asia in corporate banking account services, trade finance, and capital market advisory solutions.

Both banks will act as primary advising banks to letters of credit issued by each party and offer discounting of export bills. DBS will also issue bank guarantees such as performance and bid bonds on the back of a counter bank guarantee from NCB. In addition, DBS will provide investment banking and corporate finance advisory services to NCB corporate customers who are seeking to raise funds either through a primary or secondary listing on the Singapore Exchange.

“As DBS has an extensive network across Asia and expertise in serving SMEs, the partnership with DBS will help us better serve our SME clients who are expanding their business in Asia,” says Hiromichi Tanigawa, president of NCB.

“With this new alliance with NCB, we will be able to expand our Japanese client base to include small and medium enterprises with operations in Asia,” says Sim S. Lim, group executive of DBS.