Singapore's DBS Group Holdings announced Friday that since the bank made bigger allowances for bad debt, its net profit in the first quarter fell 28 per cent from the previous year.

DBS confirmed via a statement that in the three months to March, the net profit was 433 million Singapore dollars (295 million US), down from 603 million dollars in the same period last year.

The income of net interest during the first quarter was 1.08 billion dollars, up two per cent from 1.06 billion.

It was reported by the bank that during the March quarter, it made allowances of 414 million dollars for credit and other losses, up enormously from 140 million dollars last year.

A fall to1.99 per cent from 2.04 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008 was seen in Net interest margin, a key measure of profitability for banks.

It was specified by DBS that in the first quarter it saw its non-performing loan rate increasing to 2.05 from1.5% in the fourth quarter of 2008.

(Via TopNews Singapore. Contributed by Parminder Singh)