United Overseas Bank, Singapore's second-biggest lender, said on Tuesday credit demand from small- and medium-sized businesses could fall as the economy slows amid a global financial crisis.

"As of now, we are not seeing any distress amongst SMEs," a UOB spokeswoman said.

"Going forward, there may be some slow payments by SME customers and lower demand due to slowing economy which may put some stress on SMEs' cashflow in the future."

The emailed statement was in response to queries from Reuters after the bank reported last week a larger-than-expected 5.1 percent fall in its quarterly profit as volatile financial markets hurt non-interest income and it wrote down bad debt.