Consumer Banking / Wealth Management

With more than 2,300 physical touchpoints including branches and self-service machines, we already have the largest network in Singapore. We boosted our presence with another 170 touchpoints during the year by forming partnerships with two popular retail chains, Guardian pharmacy and Sheng Siong supermarket, giving our customers additional avenues to withdraw cash.

While technology has empowered customers to carry out transactions electronically, branch visits are still sometimes necessary.

We used technology to make visits less time consuming. Our mobile banking app was enhanced to give customers a live view of traffic at specific branches, enabling customers to determine how busy the branch they were planning to visit was. We also piloted a system that enabled customers to obtain, through a short message service (SMS) on their mobile phones, a queue number and an estimate of the waiting time before their turn. This enabled customers to arrive at the branch just ahead of their turn, saving them needless waiting time.

The number of customers using our internet and mobile banking platforms increased to more than 2.7 million and 1 million respectively, with over 24 million internet and 11 million mobile transactions on average each month. Our digital channels are increasingly becoming the preferred channel for our customers to transact, engage and buy products and services from us, especially as we continue to advance the use of analytics to provide our customers with the most relevant offers at the most relevant time.

In Singapore, we launched an SMS banking service that allowed customers to carry out banking transactions such as checking account balances or paying credit card bills even if they did not have internet access. This freed up as much as 15,000 hours of automated teller machine (ATM) usage time every month for customers to perform other transactions on ATMs.

We also rolled out a mobile phone wallet called DBS PayLah!. It enabled customers to send and receive funds from contacts listed in their mobile phone directory. Since its launch in May, more than 200,000 customers have registered for the service and are accounting for more than 60,000 payments each month, making it the most popular mobile wallet in Singapore.

In addition, we rolled out mobile banking across China, Taiwan and India in Q4 2014, and are already seeing significant customer sign-ups and activity.

In China, we were the first foreign bank to launch online unit trust trading services, with customers now able to subscribe for, redeem, switch and transact unit trusts online.

We also expanded our overseas remittance service that provides same-day fund transfers at low costs. Previously available for India and Indonesia, it now includes Hong Kong and the Philippines. With greater convenience and attractive fees, the number of remittances doubled over the previous year.

In Singapore and Taiwan, we have provided our relationship managers (RMs) with tablets that come with specially designed apps such as "Your Financial Profile". This has not only improved RM mobility, enabling our RMs to serve customers at the place of their choosing, it has also significantly improved the quality of our conversations with customers and the overall customer experience.

In Hong Kong, we launched a tablet version of "mobile loan centre" to provide customers with the flexibility to apply for a loan online, via mobile or tablet. The online loan centre was recognised as "Asia’s Best Mobile Banking" service in the IDC Financial Insights Innovation Award 2014.

We continued to broaden our value proposition in line with the needs of our customers across our markets.

In Singapore, we partnered organisations such as the People's Association and SAFRA to offer credit and debit cards that combine payment convenience, rewards and membership benefits. By carrying just one card, customers can enjoy multiple functionalities and use the same piece of plastic for transport as well as payments.

It is not uncommon for banks to take a siloed product view when dealing with customers. Through the Multiplier programme, DBS takes a holistic view of our customers’ relationships and rewards them with higher interest rates for their deposits when they increase their engagement with us.

In India, we launched home loan solutions for our customers with a unique flexi loan concept, whereby customers have the flexibility to reduce their mortgage interest payments by increasing the balance in their linked current account. We also launched home loans in Indonesia with a specific focus on Treasures customers.

In Hong Kong, we moved quickly to introduce a holistic suite of RMB-linked products, helping customers capture opportunities arising from the increasing internationalisation of the currency. When the Hong Kong Monetary Authority scrapped the daily RMB-conversion limit of 20,000 yuan, we were one of the first banks to launch new RMB-linked products such as CNH Premium Deposits, which were previously unavailable to Hong Kong investors. We also introduced product bundles that made it easier for customers to benefit from a more varied range of investment options and enjoy potentially higher returns.

Apart from supporting customers in their day-to-day banking needs, we also offer products to protect and grow their wealth, as well as to proactively plan for their retirement years. In 2014, we rolled out several initiatives across Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan to help customers actively plan for their retirement. For example, in Hong Kong, we launched "New Chapter Wealth Planning" to help customers fulfil their aspirations post retirement, whether it is to pursue a second career, embark on new adventures or spend quality time with the family. Using asset allocation tools and the "New Chapter" calculator, we are able to help our customers attain their dreams. Regular reviews ensure that this is a dynamic process. The service won an award in the 2014 Asia-Pacific SABRE Awards – Consumer Marketing (New Product) category.

In October, DBS successfully acquired Société Générale’s private banking business in Asia (SGPB Asia). SGPB Asia’s business is highly complementary to ours. With the transaction, our high net worth clients now have access to an expanded product suite, including more tailored structured products. SGPB Asia’s clients who have migrated over to DBS in turn enjoy our universal banking platform including consumer, corporate and investment banking.

In the wealth space, we partnered IBM to deploy Watson cognitive computing to provide better advice to our customers. This is in line with our broader strategy to leverage big data to provide more precise, customised and actionable insights that meet our customers’ needs. With Watson, DBS’ RMs will have access to targeted insights and recommendations based on Watson's analyses of large volumes of complex, unstructured and structured data. This includes research reports, product information and specific customer profiles and needs. We intend to progressively roll out the Watson capability across other customer segments to enable highly contextual and relevant interactions and service for our clients at all times.