DBS Bank, which turns 50 this year, is accelerating its digital transformation to maintain its leadership position in Asia, as customers demand new banking experiences, chief executive officer Piyush Gupta said in Taipei yesterday.
Toward that aim, the Singaporean banking group has replaced its tagline from “Living, Breathing Asia” with “Live more, Bank less” to live up to its commitment to make banking so simple, seamless and invisible that customers have more time to spend on the people or things they care about, Gupta said.
“While remaining rooted to Asia, we believe we are ready to own a new space,” Gupta told a news conference in Taipei.
It takes a disrupted bank with creativity and courage to change how customers think and work and get ready even before customers are, he said.
The ubiquity of the smartphone, the explosion of data and the rise of the sharing economy have drastically changed customer behavior and DBS is well-placed to personify and embody banking of the future, Gupta said.
NEXT PHASE OF GROWTH
The “Live More, Bank Less” ethos embodies the belief that the bank needs to remain at the forefront of change in the next 50 years. It encapsulates many aspects among which is the effort to enable its customers to live hassle-free by weaving banking into the daily lives of customers, Gupta said.
The bank has launched car, property and electricity marketplaces in the last nine months. Customers looking to buy or sell their car, rent a property or choose an electricity provider can now do so on the DBS Website, he said.
With iWealth, an all-in-one banking and wealth management platform, customers in Singapore and Hong Kong can manage, transact and trade via their mobile phones 24 hours a day. In India and Indonesia, digibank offers paperless, signatureless and branchless operations all carried out over the phone.
DBS also aims to help customers seize life’s opportunities. Customers in Singapore and Hong Kong are provided insights to better seize investment opportunities through iWealth. They have access to sophisticated portfolio and performance analyses as well as curated research and investment views contextual to their portfolio or preferences, Gupta said.
The BusinessClass proposition, a multi-channel platform, offers small- and medium-sized enterprises access to latest market trends as well as a knowledgeable community of Asia’s business leaders including venture capitalists and industry peers, he said.
Chief financial officers and corporate treasurers can manage and project their cash positions at the click of a button with Treasury Prism, the world’s first online treasury and cash management simulation tool, Gupta said.
In addition, DBS encourages customers to be socially conscious and live larger than themselves. It has provided the next generation with opportunities to come together and work out innovative solutions to sustainability issues, he said.
The bank has helped social entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life through grants, banking services, and mentorship as well as by giving them a platform to share their work and pitch for funding, Gupta said.
FROM SINGAPOREAN TO ASIAN CHAMPION
DBS has established itself as a leader not only in Singapore but also in Asia with its income growing twofold and market capitalization more than tripling between 2006 and 2017, company data showed.
It is the only Singapore and Asian bank to be ranked among the top six wealth managers in the region and among the top five for corporate banking. It is the only Asian bank with a presence in three key areas of growth: Greater China, South Asia and Southeast Asia.
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