Most Singapore investors own the local banks. DBS Group, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation and United Overseas Bank are almost treated like national assets at this point. But if you walk around Singapore’s CBD long enough, you will notice something else. HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered are everywhere too. Massive offices. Private banking lounges. Corporate banking relationships. In many ways, HSBC and StanChart are just as embedded into Singapore’s financial ecosystem as the local banks themselves. The question then becomes: If investors are comfortable owning Singapore banks, why not own HSBC (HKG:0005) or StanChart (HKG:2888) too? The answer is that they are probably not replacements for Singapore banks. But they can be very interesting extensions. Singapore banks are fundamentally ASEAN wealth and domestic banking champions. Their strength comes from stability. Singapore’s regulatory environment is strong. Loan books are conservative. The local banks dominate deposits domestically while steadily expanding across Southeast Asia. What investors are effectively buying when they buy DBS, OCBC or UOB is...