Great Eastern Holdings, the insurance company controlled by Singapore’s second-largest bank, set up a $1 billion multi-currency medium-term note program.

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and Morgan Stanley will manage the program, which may lead to sales of senior or subordinated, fixed- or floating-rate notes, according to a statement to the Singapore stock exchange today.

 

Great Eastern is 85 percent-owned by Oversea-Chinese, Singapore’s second-biggest lender by market capitalization, and hasn’t sold bonds in public markets before, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

 

Borrowers raised $634 million from local-currency bonds in Singapore this year, with the largest — $420 million — from property owner Savu Investments, the data show. That compares with $14 million of sales in the same period of 2010.