DBS Bank

“Crossing SGD 100 billion in market capitalisation is a seminal moment for DBS and Singapore. It is testament to the value we have been able to unlock through the multi-year structural transformation of our franchise. We are also proud to fly Singapore’s flag high on the international stage.” – Piyush Gupta, DBS CEO Recently, we had the honour of becoming the first Singapore-listed company to achieve SGD 100 billion in market capitalisation – the culmination of a multi-year structural transformation of our franchise. By taking the step to pursue a digitalisation strategy, we strengthened our deposit franchise. Together with high ROE businesses – wealth management, global transaction services and treasury market sales – as well as enhanced risk management, we’ve delivered a consistently strong financial performance. Our 2023 return on equity of 18% placed us in the top 10% of the world’s largest banks. And in Q1 2024, our ROE hit a new quarterly high of 19.4%. We’re thankful for the support of our customers and our employees. We remain committed to not only doing well, but also doing good. For instance, as a purpose-driven bank, we’ve committed up to SGD 1 billion over 10 years to support vulnerable communities. Read more about our journey in this article below.

We are honoured to have been named by The Banker as Asia’s Investment Bank of the Year. This award is in recognition of our continued focus to support our clients’ financing needs, especially for sustainable financing, amid challenging and volatile market conditions across Asia. DBS Global Head of Investment Banking Clifford Lee said, “We remain committed to our clients, keeping the markets open to Asian and non-Asian participants alike, while continuing our drive towards sustainable financing.”

The US economy is at an inflection point as we head into the second half of 2024. While payrolls have remained resilient, the unemployment rate has ticked above 4%, and labour market indicators suggest softening in the months ahead. Assuming inflation remains in line with consensus, the case can be made for less restrictive monetary policy in 2H. DBS Group Research maintains our view that the Fed will cut twice in 2024 and four more times in 2025. The Fed has a dual mandate of full employment and stable prices, and as the economic cycle ages, the employment component will play an increasingly important role. What are the key trends to watch? Find out at https://go.dbs.com/3LbOn6e Follow DBS Insights Direct on Telegram for daily investment ideas! https://go.dbs.com/4cTx0TE #investing #economy #usa #inflation #employment #jobs

At 11 years old, he declared his dream of becoming world champion. Now at 17, he's a world champion, twice over. What sparked Singaporean kitefoiler Maximilian Maeder's passion and drive? And what similarities does his experience have with the business world? DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta and Max recently sat down for a chat, where they shared what trusting their spark means to them, and what it takes to ride the head- and tailwinds of business, sport and life. Stay tuned for more! #TrustYourSpark

Back in the 90s, getting your hands on coveted shares meant enduring long queues – sometimes, queues that even led out of the old DBS Building. It was a time-consuming process as people had to wait for an application form, apply for a cashier’s order, fill up the form, and finally submit it with payment. But then, a game-changer in 1993: Electronic Share Application (ESA). Customers could now follow step-by-step instructions on the ATM, securing shares with remarkable ease and time. The ESA was a world’s first - it revolutionised the share application process and slashed wait times drastically. And it all started with a simple resolve: there has got to be a better way. 🎙️Learn more about banking in the 90s. Tune into our podcast, where we delve into how innovations such as the ESA came about: https://go.dbs.com/4bA7DVA #ThrowbackThursday #TrustYourSpark

“If we take charge, if we don't let change happen to us but we drive the process of change … then I think we will see a utopian world.” – Piyush Gupta, DBS Group CEO Even as technology continues to be a big driver of change in the nature of work today, we can be proactive to take charge of these transformations and emerge the better for it, said Piyush at the 19th World Human Resource Congress (WHRC). He shared his views around marrying HR and IT to keep up with the ever-evolving landscape, and indicated that organisations must manage their workforce through strategic reskilling and upskilling. Some examples of this at DBS include hackathons, where employees can learn by doing and take risks. We’ve also pivoted towards a horizontal organisation that empowers and motivates everyone contributing to each Customer Journey to make decisions and excel.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) affects millions globally with a 5 year mortality rate of around 25%. The disease is characterised by lung damage and narrowed airways, leading to breathing difficulties. Dupilumab, a drug that can treat asthma, chronic rhinosinusitis, among other conditons, has shown superior results in enhancing lung function and reducing flare ups, relative to standard treatments. This could be a breakthrough for type 2 COPD treatment, pending approval from regulatory authorities in the US, EU, and China. DBS believes the likelihood of approval from the US, EU and China in 2H24 is high as the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products has issued a positive opinion, which is a good sign. Which pharmaceutical companies could benefit? Find out what we think at https://go.dbs.com/3RPmzrP Follow DBS Insights Direct on Telegram for daily investment ideas! https://go.dbs.com/3W8j7vi #investing #stockmarket #pharmaceuticals #healthcare #global #future #us #china #eu

“Stopwatch in hand, camera mounted on tripod behind me (my second pair of eyes), I began collecting evidence… counting each loud thud that signaled bed linens dropping into an industrial-sized washing machine. As a project manager in my family’s commercial laundry business at the time, I was informed by a customer that our machines had unexpectedly processed fewer pieces than usual. I’d spent the weeks prior running every test imaginable to no solution… until the hour drew to a close and the bed linen count stood definitively at a lower-than-usual number. In that warm and humid room, punctuated by the sounds of clothes tumbling, water rushing and the mechanical whirring of machines, I breathed a sigh of relief as I finally found my answer: the machinery was fine – we just needed to optimise the workflow. Even though I’ve made a successful pivot from the commercial laundry industry, through the Institute of Banking and Finance’s Technology in Finance Immersion Programme (TFIP), to become a database engineer at DBS three years ago, I still rely on the same problem-solving mindset every day – but with software instead. Specifically, my team offers databases as a managed service to the various applications teams across the bank. Simply put, we offer databases pre-built according to requirements set by them. Since we still own and manage the databases, we’re able to cater to their requests, or solve any issues they may face. My mid-career switch from commercial laundry to banking and technology might sound out of left field – but I was a Computing graduate from the National University of Singapore (NUS). I’ve always known that I wanted to return to this industry, so I kept up to date with software engineering skills through alumni courses offered by NUS. That made the transition into my current role much easier – I was offered a full-time position in DBS just four months into the two-year programme. This was definitely thanks to all the seasoned leads and experienced members of the department who mentored me. Having gone through this career transition, I wanted to do something for others going down a similar path. When I was offered the opportunity to design and teach a crash course in various coding languages together with TFIP for future mid-career hopefuls, I jumped at the opportunity. Truth be told, it’s definitely a challenge to juggle work and teach these courses – I’ve taught three cohorts so far! But watching many of my students eventually clinch a role in DBS has honestly been a career highlight for me.” - Calvin Ng, Database as a service team #HumansofDBS #AllHandsOnDeck #TrustYourSpark

Here's some trivia for #ThrowbackThursday: Did you know, in the early days of analog technology, our IT team used to code on punch cards, and they had to be painstakingly perfect. “If you find that the logic is wrong, we have to make the change. You find which card is wrong, pull it out, retype and get another card to replace it,” recounted Ms Cheong Yin Ping, one of the System Officers at DBS’ Computer Services Department then. To better serve customers, DBS launched our first-of-its-kind Autosave programme in 1980, and a year later, we rolled out our ATMs. In 1985, DBS was part of the consortium that set up the Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS), an electronic payment service provider. These milestones – and many others – would not have been possible without our first-ever IT team set up in the 70s, whose tenacity and drive laid the foundations for the banking innovations we have today. 🎙️Keen to hear more? Head over to our podcast channel, where former employees share the moments that defined these early days of banking: https://go.dbs.com/3XHHl0C #TrustYourSpark

We’re always asking ourselves: how can we do better? One of the ways we continue to push the envelope is through embracing and leveraging new technology to serve and engage our customers. DBS Bank was recently named the Most Innovative Bank in the Asia Pacific region at the Global Finance Innovators 2024 Awards! We were recognised for several innovations, including the use of gen AI in a fraud detection tool to raise our precision and capture rate by 50%. Other innovations that contributed to our win include our cross-border QR payments and digital liquidity management solutions. Thank you to everyone (within and beyond DBS) who contributed to this success. We will continue to deliver our best, reimagining banking of the future. #banking #technology #fintech #innovation