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DBS Bank Limited is a Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at the Marina Bay Financial Centre in the Marina Bay district of Singapore. The bank was previously known as The Development Bank of Singapore Limited, which " DBS" was derived from, before the present abbreviated name was adopted on 21 July 2003 to reflect its role as a global bank. It is one of the "Big Three" local banks in Singapore, along with OCBC Bank (OCBC) and United Overseas Bank (UOB).
DBS is the largest bank in Southeast Asia by assets and among the largest banks in Asia, with assets totaling Singapore dollar739 billion It also holds market-dominant positions in Retail banking, treasury and markets, Broker-dealer, equity and debt fund-raising in other regions aside from Singapore, including in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia.
According to Asian Private Banker magazine in 2023, DBS replaced Credit Suisse as the third-largest private banking in Asia, excluding onshore China, with approximately US$201 billion (Singapore dollar271 billion) assets under management.
DBS's largest and controlling shareholder is Temasek Holdings, Singapore's second-largest sovereign wealth fund after GIC. Temasek owns 29% of DBS shares. The bank's reliable capital position has garnered a "AA−" and "Aa1" credit ratings by Standard & Poor's and Moody's, which are among the highest in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as earning the Global Finance's "Safest Bank in Asia" accolade for fifteen consecutive years, from 2009 to 2023. The Bank was also awarded the Best Digital Bank in the World in 2016 by Euromoney. In July 2019, DBS became the first bank in the world to concurrently hold three of the most prestigious global best bank honours from Euromoney, Global Finance and The Banker.
DBS has been listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Asia Pacific Index since 2 October 2018, making it the first bank in Southeast Asia to do so. DBS was one of the first companies in Singapore to be recognised for gender equality efforts along with City Developments Limited in the first Bloomberg L.P. Gender-Equality Index (GEI) that was published in 2018.
In April 1968, then Minister for Finance, Goh Keng Swee revealed the government’s plans to form a development bank with equity participation from the public in order to have greater financing for Singapore’s industrialisation project. The establishment of the DBS marked the first time the private sector was allowed to fully participate in the financing of manufacturing and other industrial projects in Singapore. With a startup capital of S$100 million, share ownership in its first year of operations comprised the following: S$48.6 million by the Singapore government; S$25.9 million by commercial banks; S$7.6 million by insurance companies and other financial institutions; and S$17.9 million by other companies and members of the public.
DBS launched its logo in 1972. Set against a white backdrop, the mark consisted of a cluster of four inward-pointing red arrows shaped after the caissons of its former headquarters – DBS Building on Shenton Way.
By 1976, POSB had one million depositors, while deposits crossed the Singapore dollar1 billion mark. The bank was then renamed POSBank in 1990, before being acquired by DBS Bank on 16 November 1998 for S$1.6 billion (first announced on 24 July 1998), giving it a dominant market share with over four million customers. The merger was seen to enable POSB to compete better with full-fledged commercial banks, to better serve more sophisticated customers, and in line with the government's call for local banks to merge and create larger and stronger banks to compete internationally.
POSB Bank still operates one of the highest numbers of bank branches in Singapore, especially in the heartlands, and operates the highest number of ATM outlets throughout the country. The integration of both banks allowed customers of either bank to share the facilities; DBS Bank depositors may use the Cash Deposit Machine installed islandwide in POSBank branches, likewise for POSB Bank depositors.
On 14 September 2015, DBS Bank announced that it will progressively cease IB Asia as it was not able to achieve economies of scale when operated as a single entity. The process was estimated to take about 2 to 3 years. DBS stated that it would be developing its own Islamic compliant banking products instead.
In 2012, DBS introduced a New Generation IB Secure Device as part of the financial industry-wide initiative for an even safer online banking experience. The device has stronger authentication capabilities and provides users with an extra layer of security against potential fraudulent activities and threats.
DBS had a total of 2.4 million Internet banking users in Singapore as of 2013.
Customers using digibank will be protected by DBS Bank's 'money-safe' guarantee. The bank promised reimbursements if were are any unauthorised transactions.
As of 2013, there were 839,000 digibank users in Singapore.
In 2014, DBS released its mobile wallet service named PayLah!, which garnered more than 100,000 users less than two months after its launch in Singapore. As of 2018, PayLah! had more than 1 million users.
In 2014, CEO Piyush Gupta and his leadership team launched a digital transformation programme intended to "Make Banking Joyful". Under this programme, the bank would consider itself "a technology company delivering banking services" and benchmark its progress against leading technology companies and aim to be the "D" in the acronym GANDALF, alongside Google, Amazon, Netflix, Apple, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
In 2016 and 2018, the Euromoney named DBS the world's best digital bank and the world's best small and medium-size enterprise bank.
On 5 May 2023, DBS's online banking and payment services, as well as its ATM services, were disrupted from about noon until about 3.10pm. The disruption affected the bank's PayLah! service as well as the 'paywave' feature on credit and debit cards. Following the incident, the MAS imposed additional capital requirements on DBS, requiring it to apply a multiplier of 1.8 times to its risk-weighted assets for operational risk, such that its total additional regulatory capital would need to amount to approximately S$1.6 billion. On 14 October 2023, DBS suffered a service disruption that affected its digital banking services, including its online banking and payment services as well as its ATM services. The disruption lasted from began from 3pm and lasted for at least several hours. At 10.10pm, DBS announced that all ATMs were back up and running, although some digital services, such as digital banking and its PayLah! service continued to be disrupted.
On 1 November 2023, in response to the incidents, the MAS imposed restrictions on DBS: prohibiting it from acquiring any new business ventures and requiring it to pause all non-essential IT changes for 6 months. DBS was also prohibited from reducing the size of its branch and ATM networks in Singapore. CEO Piyush Gupta apologised for the disruption and stated that the bank will set aside a special budget of S$80 million to enhance system resiliency. According to CEO Piyush Gupta, four out of five of the bank's major disruptions in 2023 were related to software bugs, and further that "in at least two or three of these incidents, the bug was so deep that we wouldn't be able to pick it up". He also cited "working from home" as a possible cause for these software bugs and said that the bank intended to improve the depth of its engineering team. DBS has set aside a special budget of S$80 million to enhance system resiliency and hopes to have a more robust recovery process in place by the end of Q1 2024.
| 1. | Citibank Nominees Singapore Pte Ltd | 506,573,088 | 19.68 |
| 2. | Maju Holdings Pte Ltd | 458,899,869 | 17.83 |
| 3. | DBSN Services Pte Ltd | 304,505,697 | 11.83 |
| 4. | Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd | 284,145,301 | 11.04 |
| 5. | RAFFLES NOMINEES (PTE) LIMITED | 229,954,978 | 8.94 |
| 6. | HSBC (Singapore) Nominees Pte Ltd | 224,771,577 | 8.73 |
| 7. | DBS NOMINEES PTE LTD | 174,360,762 | 6.77 |
| 8. | BPSS Nominees Singapore (Pte) Ltd | 26,200,171 | 1.02 |
| 9. | Lee Foundation | 11,512,813 | 0.45 |
| 10. | DBS VICKERS SECURITIES (SINGAPORE) PTE LTD | 11,380,066 | 0.44 |
Temasek Holdings, a company wholly owned by the Ministry of Finance, is deemed to be interested in all the ordinary shares held by Maju. In addition, Temasek is deemed to be interested in 4,449,781 ordinary shares in which its other subsidiaries and associated companies have or are deemed to have an interest pursuant to Section 4 of the Securities and Futures Act, Chapter 289.
On 2 April 2012, DBS announced that it was planning to buy over a majority stake in Bank Danamon from Temasek Holdings. Initial reactions to the proposed purchase in Indonesia were cautious with most commentators saying that the deal was expected to be approved but that government regulators would doubtless wish to look at some of the details, including reciprocity from Singapore policy makers, quite closely before making a final decision.Esther Samboh, ' DBS 'confident' of approval for Danamon takeover', The Jakarta Post, 12 April 2012.
On 31 July 2013, DBS announced that it had allowed the Bank Danamon bid to lapse, but that they remained committed to Indonesia and will continue to invest and grow the franchise.
In January 2022, DBS announced the acquisition of Citigroup’s consumer banking business in Taiwan, paying a premium of Singapore dollar930 million (NT$22 billion) at the close of the deal. After completing the acquisition on 14 August 2023, DBS became the largest foreign bank by assets in Taiwan.
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