"We are reviewing our regulations," he said at a dinner to mark Standard Chartered's 150th anniversary in Singapore. "Our basic framework has worked well, but we are scrutinising the system to minimise vulnerabilities."

He said it is unlikely that a bank in Singapore will fail, but the authorities would remain alert to any contagion or systemic risk from the global financial crisis.

Singapore on Tuesday reported its non-oil domestic exports fell 35 percent in January from a year ago -- the worst performance on record -- and the government expects the economy to shrink by up to 5 percent this year.

"We expect our economy to have a very difficult year ahead," Lee said. "We must remain vigilant."

Reporting by Nopporn Wong-Anan and Saeed Azhar

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