SINGAPORE, May 6 (Reuters) - Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp <OCBC.SI>, the smallest of Singapore's three listed banks, said its first-quarter profit fell 12 percent due to writedowns on bad debts, but the profit drop was smaller than analysts had expected.
Jan-March net profit fell to S$545 million ($370 million) from S$622 million a year ago, it said on Wednesday.
Analysts had predicted a net profit of S$293 million, according to the average of five forecasts compiled by Reuters, against a comparable figure of S$460 million a year ago that excluded exceptional items.
Bad debts rose to S$197 million from a writeback of S$8 million in the year-ago period.
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