SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Overseas-Chinese Banking Corp , the smallest of Singapore's three listed banks, said its first-quarter profit fell 12 per cent 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 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.