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Tag: DBS

  • DBS Adds Personalized Digital Advisory to Financial Planner

    DBS Adds Personalized Digital Advisory to Financial Planner

    The new tool in its NAV Planner is part of DBS’ plans to get 1 million customers insured and invested by 2023. DBS is rolling out an enhanced version of its «Make-Your-Money-Work-Harder» digital investment advisor to help retail customers make better investment decisions.

    The feature, available via NAV Planner on DBS digibank online and its mobile banking app, aims to remove guesswork and bias from investing by providing specific investment recommendations based on customer risk profile and provide a real-time hyper-personalized experience for customers.

    According to the bank, the majority of its customers are underinvested and for some, remain uninvested, with only two in 10 retail customers investing over the past 12 months.

    For new investors, many need guidance to overcome inertia, DBS said. Even with personalized recommendations and nudges provided on NAV Planner, the bank found that only one in 10 customers could complete their investing journey.

    DBS said that as customers are increasingly taking a self-directed approach to investing digitally, this approach helps investors determine their investment profiles to ensure they meet regulatory requirements before investing amid market volatility.

    This approach mirrors the offline consultation a customer would have with its wealth planning managers, which safeguards the interests of investors. «As more look to self-directed investing, it is important we equip them with the right information and intelligence digitally to construct their portfolios,» Evy Wee, DBS’ head of financial planning and personal investing, said.

    DBS said it would be more involved in helping younger customers grow by investing and with their home planning journey, which is the most common and largest-sized liability on a customer’s balance sheet.

    The bank will also focus on helping older customers monetize their assets and convert to cash for more liquidity to invest and prepare for retirement.

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  • DBS Outlines China Strategy

    DBS Outlines China Strategy

    DBS will seek to further its expansion in mainland China with a focus on three areas: its securities joint venture, consumer finance and Greater Bay Area opportunities. DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta unveiled details about its China plan during the latest annual general meeting held virtually yesterday.

    We are convinced that China’s opening-up in the capital account is going to present tremendous opportunities, Gupta told shareholders.

    We’re already seeing some benefits of that, as institutional investors from China come out and international investors go into China. So that’s hopefully a big area of growth for us. According to Gupta, the bank’s new securities joint venture in China, announced last September, is expected to go to market in the coming few weeks.

    On consumer finance, the bank will also launch a wholly-owned business in China, in addition to its existing 15 percent ownership in a consumer finance joint venture with Postal Savings Bank of China.

    And on Greater bay Area, Gupta said DBS’ Hong Kong presence is expected to support deeper integration into the area with «good momentum» observed last year, especially from its supply chain solutions.

    Gupta also commented on DBS’ takeover of Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) last November and stressed that the deal was not a forced marriage.

    People have asked whether this was a forced marriage or if we were forced to do this deal,» he said, noting that the bank long had an interest in organic and inorganic expansion. This the last thing from a forced marriage.

    DBS highlighted an opportunity through the LVB takeover to accelerated its digital push in South India with an eye on two segments with huge opportunities: retail and small-to-medium-sized enterprise clients.

    Post-acquisition, the bank has added 125,000 corporate and 2 million retail customers with the latter figure boosting its retail share of deposits from 23 percent to 48 percent. Gupta also said that he expects no more incremental cost of credit from the LVB portfolio and expects the merged entity to become profitable in the next 12 to 24 months.

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  • DBS Adds Public Sector Veteran as Board Member

    DBS Adds Public Sector Veteran as Board Member

    DBS has named a senior civil servant and former top aide to the Singapore Prime Minister to be a non-executive director on its boards.

    Chng Kai Fong will join the boards of DBS Holdings and DBS Bank, according to a statement, effective March 31 this year. He will also serve as a member of DBS’ audit committees and nominating committees.

    As part of the Singapore bank’s renewal process, longstanding board members Euleen Goh, Ow Foong Pheng and Andre Sekulic will step down on March 30.

    According to DBS chairman Peter Seah, Chng’s appointment is expected to help further DBS’ status in global banking and digital leadership.

    Chng, 42, is currently the managing director of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) after first taking on the role in October 2017. Prior to joining the EDB, he was the principal private secretary to the Prime Minister of Singapore.

    Chng also serves on the boards of EDB Investments Pte Ltd, EDBI Pte Ltd, Manakin Investments Pte Ltd, Singapore Israel Industrial Research and Development Foundation (SIIRD), Singapore Symphonia Company Limited, and Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

    He is also an advisory board member of Singapore Management University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Shell Gas & Power Development B.V.’s New Energies Advisory Board as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of Singapore University of Technology and Design.

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  • DBS Offloads Hong Kong Office Space

    DBS Offloads Hong Kong Office Space

    DBS is reportedly the latest to join the wave of global banks and multinationals that are cutting down office occupancy in Hong Kong.

    DBS will surrender a quarter of the eight floors it occupies in one of its Hoang Kong offices – One Island East Tower – according to a report citing unnamed sources.

    The office is located outside of Hong Kong’s central business district in Quarry Bay.

    DBS joins other global banks, like Standard Chartered and BNP Paribas, in shedding Hong Kong office stock.

    In fact, multinationals accounted for 75 percent of surrendered office space in the city last year, according to Cushman & Wakefield, amid the growing adoption of flexible work arrangements.

    In November last year, DBS said it would allow its employees to work remotely for as much as 40 percent of the time due to the pandemic.

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  • Lazada Marketing Specialist Joins DBS

    Lazada Marketing Specialist Joins DBS

    In her new role, she will help the bank drive sustainability efforts, create social impact, and democratize banking services with digital innovation.

    Michelle Yip has joined DBS as executive director, group strategic marketing and communications, as per a report by Marketing Interactive.

    The marketing specialist was most recently the regional marketing EVP at e-commerce giant Lazada, which she joined in 2015 as a regional category director, later becoming senior vice president of customer experience and chief marketing officer. She was previously a senior marketing manager at Philips and held lead marketing roles at Samsung Electronics.

    At Lazada, Yip led the Alibaba-owned company’s marketing team across branding, social, public relations, online performance marketing, CRM, customer lifecycle management, and strategic partnerships.

    She also led COVID-19 related consumer engagement to support the community as an essential service provider and
    anchored Lazada’s position as a thought leader in the e-commerce space through identification and shaping of industry trends and directions, according to her LinkedIn profile.

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  • DBS Cuts CEO Payout

    DBS Cuts CEO Payout

    DBS group chief executive Piyush Gupta’s total pay slid nearly a quarter after the Singapore lender saw profits fall in a similar fashion last year.

    Piyush Gupta’s compensation totaled S$9.18 million ($6.82 million) in 2020, according to the bank’s annual report, down 24 percent from 2019’s S$12.13 million.

    Gupta’s compensation included an unchanged base salary of S$1.2 million, S$4.51 million in shares and a cash bonus of S$3.41 million. The report noted that the bonus drop was attributed to the difficult operating environment which saw profits slide 26 percent and provisions quadruple.

    Last year, Gupta secured the title of Asia’s highest-paid banker after celebrating his tenth anniversary with DBS which granted him a one-time reward of 80,000 shares to recognize his «outstanding contributions» over the past decade of his leadership which saw major growth in income, profit and market capitalization.

    According to Gupta, 2020 was an «inflection point» from three key perspectives that will have future implications for the bank: accelerated digital adoption, work transformation and sustainability.

    On digitalization, Gupta highlighted opportunities from its crypto exchange launched last year. And on work transformation, he underlined the unforeseen risk of concentrating employees in a single location due to the varying lockdown rules in different markets and the bank’s location review of engineering resources.

    And despite the difficult low rate environment, he believes DBS will be able to offset the headwinds with fee

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  • DBS Loan to Spur Green Solutions in Maritime Industry

    DBS Loan to Spur Green Solutions in Maritime Industry

    The bank has issued a sustainability-linked loan to Sembcorp Marine, which references the Singapore Overnight Rate Average.

    The $500 million sustainability-linked financing facility, believed to be the industry’s first, will help steep the maritime giant to cleaner, greener and renewable energy solutions, the two sides announced in a joint statement on Thursday.

    The loan’s interest rate comprises a compounded daily SORA rate calculated in arrears and an applicable margin. The loan features interest rate discounts linked to pre-determined Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) targets, which are aligned with Sembcorp Marine’s performance targets set out in the group’s sustainability report.

    The inclusion of green financing dovetails with our strategic transformation and pivot since 2015 to provide innovative engineering solutions to the global offshore & marine and energy industries, William Goh, Sembcorp Marine’s group finance director, said.

    In 2019, some S$530 million of Sembcorp Marine’s projects were related to green solutions. The company has also introduced more green features in its operations, such as the use of solar energy to reduce emissions.

    As a purpose-driven bank, we believe financial institutions have a strategic and pivotal role to play in proactively supporting industries’ work towards a lower-carbon future, Dorian Delteil, DBS head of oil and gas, said.

    DBS recently raised its commitment to finance S$50 billion in renewable, clean energy and green projects by 2024, up from S$20 billion previously.

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  • DBS Names Malaysia Country Head

    DBS Names Malaysia Country Head

    DBS reshuffles several senior managers and appoints a new country head for Malaysia, effective June 1 this year.

    The Singaporean lender named Abdul Raof Latiff as the new Malaysia country head, according to a statement, succeeding Jeffrey Ling who will retire from the role.

    Ling, who joined the bank in 1995, will stay as a senior advisor to help continue engagement with DBS’s key clients in Malaysia.

    Latiff joined DBS in 2017 and was most recently its group head of digital for institutional banking and group head of global transaction services product management. Latiff has over 25 years of banking experience and he previously held senior positions in the region with the likes of Citigroup, J.P. Morgan and HSBC.

    Latiff’s existing roles will be taken over by 15-year DBS veteran Lim Soon Chong, currently group head of investment products and advisory for consumer banking and wealth management.

    The new appointments reflect our commitment to groom talent from within, and enable us to continue to provide more development opportunities to our senior team across the region, said DBS group head of institutional banking Tan Su Shan.

    As a result of our deliberate effort to build our timber from within, a large proportion of our senior leaders have also been developed internally, including over 80 percent of our managing directors.

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  • E-Red Packets Gain Traction

    E-Red Packets Gain Traction

    With physical gatherings limited, red packet gifting via digital channels on the first two days of the Lunar New Year grew considerably from the year before.

    Efforts to digitalize the longstanding custom of giving hong bao (red packets) during the Lunar New Year have been given a boost by the pandemic and limited social gatherings in Singapore, according to local banks, which reported a rise in e-hongbao adoption.

    DBS reported more than 9,000 DBS eGift transactions on Friday and Saturday – a 108 percent increase from last year – and 215 percent more at S$595,000, with some S$2 million loaded on 32,000 of the bank’s QR gift cards compared to S$660,000 on 18,000 QR gift cards in 2020. Transactions on OCBC Bank’s Pay Anyone app rose more than 140 percent compared to last year, while the volume of PayNow transactions made by UOB customers tripled on the first two days of the Lunar New Year from 2020, the banks said.

    Limitations with regard to physical interactions and gatherings, and new cashless habits adopted in the past year among consumers contributed were behind the rise in digital giving, a spokesman for Standard Chartered, which saw PayNow transactions rise 400 percent, told the paper.

    While community transmission of the Covid-19 virus in Singapore is largely contained, households in Singapore are limited to a maximum of eight visitors per day, which has put a dampener on celebrations.

    Despite the rise in digital alternatives, old habits die hard, as evidenced by the efforts of banks that have continued to produce red packets with elaborate designs.

  • DBS Posts Fourth Quarter Profit Drop

    DBS Posts Fourth Quarter Profit Drop

    DBS posted lower profits in the fourth quarter of 2020 due to higher allowances set aside for potential bad loans.

    Net profit fell 33 percent year-on-year to S$1.01 billion due to a lower net interest margin and high total allowances set aside, according to a statement from DBS.

    The bank’s earnings were in line with the average estimate of S$1.02 billion, according to Refinitiv’s compilation of four analyst forecasts.

    For the full year of 2020, DBS posted a net profit of S$4.72 billion, 26 percent below the record performance of 2019 as total allowances more than quadrupled to S$3.07 billion due to risks from the pandemic. Total income was stable at S$14.6 billion.

    According to the bank’s CEO Piyush Gupta, its pipeline for loans and fee income is healthy and it has also been actively positioning itself for growth.

    We have been proactive through the crisis and enter the year with new growth platforms, Gupta said.

    Lakshmi Vilas Bank in India and the securities joint venture in China will enhance our presence in both key markets. Initiatives such as the Digital Exchange, supply chain digitalization, and efforts to broaden wealth management to the mass market will reinforce our leadership in digital finance. These platforms will strengthen our ability to continue supporting customers and delivering shareholder returns.

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  • DBS Opens Tech Academy in Upskilling Drive

    DBS Opens Tech Academy in Upskilling Drive

    The bank has launched an in-house digital training institute to equip its 5,000-strong technology workforce with cutting-edge skills for the future.

    The Future Tech Academy covers three technology disciplines: Site Reliability Engineering, Data Processing and Analytics, and Application Security, with more programs to be added over the next year.

    Having our own DBS Future Tech Academy gives us the agility to adapt our training curricula according to the bank’s needs and enables us to stay ahead of the massive changes around us, Jimmy Ng, DBS group chief information officer, said.

    The curriculum DBS is offering incorporates a blended pedagogical approach tapping on both external experts as well as internally developed content and certifications.

    DBS believes that this will enable employees to acquire the latest technology skillsets from external industry experts and immediately apply their new skills to relevant technology projects being rolled out by the bank, it said in a statement on Thursday.

    Growing the Talent Pool

    UOB and Standard Chartered have also previously launched programs to train their staff to adapt to the digital era, with the latter launching a learning hub in Singapore in December 2020 to boost the job readiness, career prospects and future competitiveness of its Singapore workforce.

    Growing the pool of technology talent in Singapore will place the country in good stead as we respond to the disruptions ahead, Ng said.

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  • DBS Ramps Up Support for Social Enterprises

    DBS Ramps Up Support for Social Enterprises

    The bank disbursed S$7 million ($5.23 million) in loans to social enterprises so far this year, up fourfold from 2019.

    Much of this support has gone towards creating and preserving livelihoods, with many of the SEs using the funds to create and retain jobs that hire people from disadvantaged communities, DBS said in a statement on Thursday.

    DBS said that access to working capital was an immediate priority for many SEs when the pandemic emerged, but many of them faced challenges in getting loans as they typically lacked a borrowing history with banks or relevant credit profiles.

    The bank rolled out its SE Digital Business Loan in May this year, which covers working capital needs at preferential rates. The bank also offers the Social Enterprise Business Loan which provides unsecured loans at a preferential interest rate, and the Temporary Bridging Loan, which provides short-term relief assistance.

    In addition, DBS Foundation awarded S$2 million in grants to social enterprises (SEs) to support the deployment of social innovations. The funding includes S$1.4 million given to 13 SEs in six of the bank’s key markets (Singapore, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia and Taiwan) in the 2020 cycle of its DBS Foundation Social Enterprise Grant Program.

    Two were from Singapore: Ento Industries – a biotech focused on reducing food waste, and Zigway, a ASEAN-focused fintech that makes bulk buying affordable for low-income families through a monthly subscription model.

    Recipients were chosen from a record 820 applications across Asia, based on social impact, innovation, as well as the sustainability and scalability of their business models. They were also required to demonstrate a path to achieving key business and social impact milestones.

    DBS noted the increasing recognition for the role SEs play in society.

    In the world we’re living in today, companies must not only think about delivering value to shareholders, but also consider the interests of the communities they serve. This has really come to the fore amidst Covid-19, which has sparked unprecedented social and economic challenges – yet, these very issues have also heightened opportunities for social enterprises to make a difference, and helped to cement the importance of their role in society, Karen Ngui, Board Member of DBS Foundation, said in the statement.

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  • DBS to Make Hybrid Work Arrangements Permanent

    DBS to Make Hybrid Work Arrangements Permanent

    The bank, which has a workforce of 29,000, said these measures are the result of insights gathered from research, deep-dive experiments and employee surveys conducted by a task force on the future of work, which it convened six months ago.

    DBS is transforming the way its employees will work in a post-Covid 19 world, with a number of initiatives that include implementing a permanent hybrid work model that gives employees the option to work remotely up to 40 percent of the time, flexible work arrangements, deploying more project-specific data-driven squads with members from different functions, and creating workspaces that facilitate collaboration, the bank announced on Tuesday.

    The bank will also accelerate employee upskilling, with 7,200 employees, of which 4,300 are in Singapore, to undergo training in emerging areas such as design thinking, data and analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and agile practices.

    The announcement follows UOB, which said last week that it would give the majority of its 26,000-strong workforce the choice to work remotely two days a week once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. Standard Chartered is also rolling out similar measures globally.

    DBS said that over 80 percent of its employees indicated a preference for more open collaboration spaces to facilitate informal discussions and cross-team ideation, which they found difficult to do remotely. As such, the bank will transform its workspaces to enable greater collaboration and ideation, and launch a 5,000-square foot Living Lab that aims to blend the best of physical and virtual workspace configurations.

    As the way we live, bank and work continue to change dramatically, we must address the magnitude of the disruptions before us, Piyush Gupta, DBS CEO, said about the changes.

    Last week, DBS unveiled its new branch at Takashimaya, which aims to cater to customers who want quicker, socially distanced and more personalized branch services, and said it would roll out similar branches across at least one-third of its branch network over the next 12 to 18 months.

  • DBS India to Save Troubled Lakshmi Vilas Bank

    DBS India to Save Troubled Lakshmi Vilas Bank

    The Chennai-based bank, which has a 94-year history in India, with established retail and SME customer base, and a strong presence in South India, has undergone a steady decline with the bank incurring continuous losses over the last three years, eroding its net-worth.

    India’s banking regulator imposed a 30-day moratorium Tuesday on struggling Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB), superseded its board of directors and announced a draft scheme for the amalgamation of the bank with DBS Bank’s India subsidiary.

    The financial position of Lakshmi Vilas Bank has undergone a steady decline with the bank incurring continuous losses over the last three years, eroding its net-worth. In the absence of any viable strategic plan, declining advances and mounting non-performing assets (NPAs), the losses are expected to continue,» the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said.

    To support the amalgamation, DBS will inject INR 2,500 crore ($345 million) into DBIL if the scheme is approved. This will be fully funded from DBS’ existing resources, the bank said.

    The proposed amalgamation will provide stability and better prospects to Lakshmi Vilas Bank’s depositors, customers, and employees following a time of uncertainty. At the same time, the proposed amalgamation will allow DBIL to scale its customer base and network, particularly in South India, which has longstanding and close business ties with Singapore, DBS said in a statement on Wednesday.

    DBS has been in India since 1994. To expand the franchise and build greater scale, DBS converted its India operations to a wholly-owned subsidiary in 2019, DBIL. The bank is now present in 24 cities across 13 states.

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  • DBS Profits Fall in Third Quarter

    DBS Profits Fall in Third Quarter

    The bank will issue an interim one-tier tax-exempt dividend of 18 cents per share, for which the scrip dividend scheme will be applicable, for the third quarter of 2020 DBS Group reported net profit of S$1.30 billion ($960 million) for third-quarter of 2020, according to financial results released on Thursday.

    This is 20 percent lower than the same period a year before (S$1.63 billion), but 4 percent up on-quarter on the back of improved business momentum. During the quarter, DBS also set aside S$554 million in allowances for potential bad loans and lower net interest income, bringing total allowances for the nine months this year to S$2.49 billion.

    The bank noted improved business momentum as fee income rebounded 17 percent to pre-Covid levels of S$798 million, led by wealth management and card fees, which softened the impact of lower interest rates as well as a decline in trading income from a high base.

    Due to the higher allowances, the bank’s net profit for the nine months declined 24 percent from the year before to S$3.71 billion.

    DBS said it expects a strong economic rebound in Asia from the current low base to support mid-single-digit loan growth and double-digit fee income growth in 2021.

    The accelerated build-up of allowances has strengthened our ability to meet the challenges of an uneven economic recovery in the coming year. In the longer term, Asia’s fundamentals remain undiminished, Piyush Gupta, chief executive, said.

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