Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (SGX: O39), or OCBC, has long been a staple dividend-paying blue chip.
Someone who bought shares of the bank a decade ago would have held through various interest rate cycles, including low rates during the pandemic and the 2022-2023 rate surge.
What matters, however, for income investors is how much in dividends the bank has paid over the last ten years.
So let’s put S$20,000 into OCBC in October 2016, count each dividend, and see how the starting yield, dividend growth and the rising share price have added to the result.
How We Calculate the 10-Year OCBC Investment
The purchase price is OCBC’s closing price of S$8.69 on 10 October 2016; S$20,000 gets you 2,300 shares.
Remember, until recently, you could only purchase shares in board lot sizes of 100 shares.
Dividend per share, collected as cash, ran at S$6.328 across the ten years (S$0.32 of this was special dividends).
Excluding brokerage costs and transaction fees, and given that OCBC’s dividends are tax-exempt, you would have pocketed a sum of S$14,554.4.
What Was OCBC’s Dividend Like 10 Years Ago?
Back in 2016, OCBC paid a final dividend of S$0.36 per share, yielding roughly 4.1% given a purchase price of S$8.69.
Today’s annualised yield is lower at 3.2%, because the share price has risen faster than the dividend.
The dividend growth path wasn’t straight, though.
OCBC’s ordinary dividend climbed from S$0.37 per share in 2017 to S$0.53 by 2019, then fell to S$0.318 in 2020 as the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) asked banks to cap their 2020 dividends at 60% of 2019’s level.
OCBC then raised its ordinary dividend back to S$0.53 per share in 2021 and continued raising it to S$0.85 per share by 2024 before lowering it slightly to S$0.83 per share in 2025, likely because of lower interest rates.
The latest interim dividend for 2026 came in at S$0.47 per share, up 15% compared to a year earlier.
The starting yield tells only part of the story, because dividend growth did most of the work.
Dividends paid
| Financial year (ending 31 December) | Ordinary (interim + final) dividend per share | Special | Total |
| FY2016 | S$0.18 (0.18) | NA | S$0.18 |
| FY2017 | S$0.37 (0.18 + 0.19) | NA | S$0.37 |
| FY2018 | S$0.43 (0.20 + 0.23) | NA | S$0.43 |
| FY2019 | S$0.53 (0.25 + 0.28) | NA | S$0.53 |
| FY2020 | S$0.318 (0.159 + 0.159) | NA | S$0.318 |
| FY2021 | S$0.53 (0.25 + 0.28) | NA | S$0.53 |
| FY2022 | S$0.68 (0.28 + 0.40) | NA | S$0.68 |
| FY2023 | S$0.82 (0.40 + 0.42) | NA | S$0.82 |
| FY2024 | S$0.85 (0.44 + 0.41) | S$0.16 | S$1.01 |
| FY2025 | S$0.83 (0.41 + 0.42) | S$0.16 | S$0.99 |
| 1H2026 (ending 30 June 2026) | S$0.47 | NA | S$0.47 |
How Much Would the S$20,000 Investment Have Generated in Dividends?
As mentioned earlier, investing S$20,000 in OCBC in October 2016 would have given you 2300 OCBC shares.
As seen in the table below, these shares would have paid you S$14,554.40 in dividends, of which S$13,818.40 was ordinary dividends and S$736 was special dividends.
That works out to roughly 73% of the S$20,000 you paid, returned in cash, while you still own every share.
Excluding 2016, the thinnest year was 2017, when the dividend received was just S$851.
The best year so far is 2024, with S$2,323 in dividends.
Dividends received
| FY | Dividends per share (S$) | Cash on 2300 shares | Cumulative |
| 2016 (final) | S$0.18 | S$414 | S$414 |
| 2017 | S$0.37 | S$851 | S$1,265 |
| 2018 | S$0.43 | S$989 | S$2,254 |
| 2019 | S$0.53 | S$1,219 | S$3,473 |
| 2020 | S$0.318 | S$731.40 | S$4,204.40 |
| 2021 | S$0.53 | S$1,219 | S$5,423.40 |
| 2022 | S$0.68 | S$1,564 | S$6,987.40 |
| 2023 | S$0.82 | S$1,886 | S$8,873.40 |
| 2024 | S$1.01 | S$2,323 | S$11,196.40 |
| 2025 | S$0.99 | S$2,277 | S$13,473.40 |
| 1HFY2026 (interim) | S$0.47 | S$1,081 | S$14,554.40 |
What Would the Investment Be Worth Today?
At a share price of S$29 right now, 2300 shares of OCBC are worth S$66,700.
Add S$14,554.4 in dividends, and the total stands at S$81,254.4.
This brings the total return against the initial S$20,000 investment to 306%, which works out to roughly a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15%, with dividends taken as cash.
OCBC’s share price appreciation supplied 76% of the total return and dividends 24%; this is the perfect example of both dividend income and capital appreciation working in tandem to generate a solid total return.
What If You Reinvested Every Dividend?
This is an illustration.
Assume each dividend bought whole shares on its payment date, at a price on a smooth path from S$8.69 to S$29, with leftover cash carried forward and no fees.
The 2,300 shares would grow to about 3,288 shares, which would be worth around S$95,000 with leftover cash.
This is a 377% return, or a 16.9% CAGR.
Much of OCBC’s price gain came recently, so earlier purchases were probably cheaper than the smooth path assumes, which makes this a conservative estimate.
Reinvesting added more than S$10,000 compared to taking the dividend as cash, significantly boosting the effect of compounding.
Your Yield on Cost Would Look Very Different
Yield on cost is the current annual dividend divided by what you paid.
On 2,300 shares, that is S$2,277, an 11.4% yield on your initial capital outlay.
A new buyer at S$29 earns 3.4%.
The same capital paid S$851 in its first year and now pays nearly three times that, given specials and dividend growth.
What Drove OCBC’s Dividend Growth?
OCBC earned S$3.5 billion in net profit in 2016 and S$7.4 billion in 2025, about 8.8% a year.
Topline grew more slowly, from S$8.5 billion to S$14.6 billion, so OCBC kept more of each dollar of revenue as profit.
Earnings per share (EPS) doubled to S$1.63.
The first half of 2026 brought another record, with profit of S$4.2 billion, up 13%.
Return on equity (ROE) went from 9.1% to 14.4% annualised.
Net interest margin (NIM) thinned to 1.73%, but wealth, fee and insurance income have made up for the lower net interest income (NII).
Capital strength kept pace with the payout.
The Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio is still healthy at 14.0%, and OCBC targets about 50% of profit as ordinary dividends, plus 10% as a special dividend under its S$2.5 billion capital return plan (to be completed by 2026).
Acquisitions helped too: Barclays’ Singapore and Hong Kong wealth business in 2016 helped; HSBC’s Indonesian wealth business, slated for completion in 2027, could add to this.
Moving forward, sustained earnings growth is critical for the bank to maintain its dividend growth.
Could OCBC Deliver Similar Dividend Income Over the Next 10 Years?
Not by simple repetition.
OCBC currently trades at a premium earnings and book multiple of 16.7x and 2.1x, respectively, while the current starting yield is lower as well.
Lower rates have squeezed its NIM, though loan growth guidance is still healthy in the high single digits.
The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio is a clean 0.9%, but its exposure to Greater China real estate remains a risk.
The capital return plan ends in 2026, so the special dividend shouldn’t be assumed to continue indefinitely.
The HSBC Indonesia deal will also require capital.
A ten-year record is evidence about the business, not a promise of another decade of rising payout.
Get Smart: The Power of Holding a Quality Dividend Stock
A S$20,000 investment in OCBC in 2016 would have paid S$14,554.40 in dividends and left shares worth S$66,700, a gain of S$61,254.40 with dividends taken as cash, or about S$81,254.40 had they been reinvested..
Look past today’s yield to whether a company can grow earnings and dividends for years.
The next decade won’t copy this one, since part of the share price gain came from a higher valuation.
But time, dividend growth and patience turned a modest sum into a meaningful income stream.
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They turn to companies with cash, history, and discipline. This free report highlights 5 blue chips that deserve your attention. Get your copy here and see who made the list.
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Disclosure: Wilson H. does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned.
