Over the past decade, DBS Group (SGX: D05), OCBC (SGX: O39), and UOB (SGX: U11) have all done well by shareholders via a mix of rising dividends and higher share prices.
What if you had put S$10,000 into each, back on 26 August 2016?
Let’s see how you fare by 28 August 2026.
The Rules of the S$10,000 Contest
To keep it fair, the same assumptions apply to all three: S$10,000 invested in each bank at its closing price on 26 August 2016, held to 28 August 2026.
We factor in dividends paid, taken as cash, and assume whole shares for simplicity.
Simply comparing share price alone understates a bank’s return, because it ignores the fat dividends these three pay yearly.
Total return (price + dividends) is the only honest scorecard.
DBS: From S$10,000 to S$74,495
A decade ago, DBS closed at S$13.73, so S$10,000 bought about 728 shares, paying an initial yield of about 4.4%.
In February 2024, DBS declared a one-for-10 bonus issue, lifting the holding to 800 shares at no extra cost.
With the stock now near S$77, those 800 shares are worth roughly S$61,600 – a more than fivefold gain in capital alone.
On top of that, DBS paid a total of roughly S$12,895 in cash dividends over the decade, accounting for the increased share count after the bonus issue.
Combined with the price appreciation, your S$10,000 became roughly S$74,495 – a total return of about 645%, or 22.2% a year.
Dividends rose from S$0.60 per share in 2016 to S$3.18 over the last twelve months as the bank’s focus on wealth management and digital banking paid (apologies for the pun) dividends.
Now, if you had reinvested the dividends received over this period, you would have compounded even faster: take the S$12,895 received in cash over the past decade and plough that back into more DBS shares, and those additional shares buy their own dividends.
OCBC: From S$10,000 to S$43,300
OCBC started at S$8.62, so S$10,000 bought about 1,160 shares with a starting yield of 4.2%.
Since then, your shares have risen to roughly S$31, a 3.6x increase, lifting those shares to roughly S$35,960.
The bank paid a total of S$6.328 per share in dividends, adding about S$7,340 in cash.
All told, your S$10,000 investment grew to around S$43,300 – a 333% total return, or 15.8% a year.
OCBC was the steadiest riser, raising its dividend in six of nine years with only shallow cuts.
The bank’s dividend growth is powered by a diversified franchise: steady banking, insurance contributions from Great Eastern, and a wealth business helped by acquisitions.
Similarly, reinvesting your dividends would have compounded your portfolio faster: the S$7,340 in cash dividends reinvested in more OCBC shares would have grown your income and portfolio value even more than simply sitting on the income received.
UOB: From S$10,000 to S$30,259
UOB began at the highest initial price, S$18.05, so S$10,000 bought the fewest shares at about 554.
At an initial dividend per share of S$0.70, the beginning yield is near 3.9%.
In the last decade, shares rose to around S$41 per share, a near 2.3x gain, worth roughly S$22,714.
Add S$13.62 per share of dividends (S$7,545 in cash), and the total stands at S$30,259 – a 203% return, or 11.7% a year.
UOB raised its dividend in most years, with cuts only during the MAS-imposed restrictions in 2020–2021.
The 2025 step-down reflected a shift towards share buybacks rather than higher cash payouts.
Still solid – your money roughly tripled – but the smallest gain of the three.
UOB’s defining move was buying Citigroup’s ASEAN consumer business, doubling its retail base there, but integrating it weighed on costs, and its valuation premium didn’t match its peers.
The Final S$10,000 Showdown
| Metric | DBS | OCBC | UOB |
| S$10,000 initial investment | S$10,000 | S$10,000 | S$10,000 |
| Historical purchase price | S$13.73 | S$8.62 | S$18.05 |
| Shares purchased | 728 | 1,160 | 554 |
| Dividends received | S$12,895 | S$7,340 | S$7,545 |
| Final portfolio value | S$74,495 | S$43,300 | S$30,259 |
| Total return | ~645% | ~333% | ~203% |
| Annualised return | ~22.2% | ~15.8% | ~11.7% |
Who Won?
DBS, decisively.
It turned S$10,000 into nearly S$74,500 – helped in part by a 2024 bonus issue – about 72% ahead of OCBC and well over double UOB.
The bank also paid the most dividends and even started with the highest yield of the three at about 4.4%.
Share price appreciation did much of the work as the market rewarded DBS’ superior return on equity (ROE) with a much richer valuation.
What Happened During the 10 Years?
Notably, the ride wasn’t smooth.
Since 2020, you have had the regulator limiting dividend payout, followed by a surge in interest rates that very much benefited the banks via fatter net interest margins (NIMs) and beefier bottom lines.
Unless you have a crystal ball, the best course of action has been to stay invested.
Past Winners May Not Be Future Winners
Before you pile into DBS, a real caution: a decade of outperformance doesn’t guarantee the next one.
Today’s valuations sit at a different starting point from 2016’s; earnings growth has to be met rather than hoped for.
DBS trades at roughly 3.1x book value, the richest among the three, compared to OCBC’s 2.1x and UOB’s 1.3x.
On profitability, DBS leads with a 17.9% ROE, over OCBC’s 14.4% and UOB’s 11.6%.
DBS’ NIM of 1.87% is also holding up better than OCBC’s 1.70% and UOB’s 1.74%.
OCBC leads in terms of loan growth, with DBS the most measured.
This is similar for asset quality, as OCBC’s non-performing loan (NPL) ratio is the lowest at 0.9%, with DBS at 1.0%, and UOB the highest at 1.6%.
All three hold strong capital, with fully transitioned common equity tier one (CET1) ratios in the range of 14-15%.
What This 10-Year Experiment Teaches Investors
Four lessons outlast the numbers.
Total returns beat share prices; dividends can make a substantial difference, something not quite obvious just looking at share price.
Next, reinvesting dividends can seriously accelerate your portfolio growth by purchasing more shares that buy their own dividends.
Third, quality businesses, like these banks, are built to survive multiple economic cycles such as a pandemic, a zero-rate era, and a rate-hiking cycle.
Finally, the best investment isn’t the highest yielder – earnings growth and capital appreciation also matter.
Get Smart: The Winner Is More Than Just the Stock With the Biggest Gain
The lesson isn’t simply “DBS won”.
It’s how, and what it teaches: judge a bank on total return, not price.
Reward patience with reinvestment.
Quality businesses survive economic cycles.
And never assume the highest yield is the best investment.
Whether DBS repeats the feat is this decade’s question.
In the past decade, it wasn’t close.
Many Singapore stocks fall behind inflation, which means your money quietly loses strength over time. Dividend stocks have a very different track record. Some continued delivering 6% to 13% every year across the toughest market conditions.
In this FREE report, discover 5 crisis-tested dividend stocks that kept rewarding investors while the market struggled. Download your dividend investing guide now.
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Disclosure: Wilson H. does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned.
