Wealth management

Key 2015 awards

• Best Private Bank for Innovation, Global

• Most Innovative Private Bank in the World

• Most Innovative Business Model, Global

• Best Asian Private Bank

• Best Wealth Manager, Asia

Financial performance

The development of our wealth continuum continues at a healthy pace with income growing 29% to SGD 1.42 billion. The business now constitutes 40% of our consumer bank and 13% of the Group by income.

We expanded our affluent client base by 10%, with total wealth customer assets under management (AUM) at SGD 146 billion.

We are the only Asian bank among the top eight leading wealth managers in Asia by AUM. We are committed to growing our wealth business and as the safest bank in Asia, we are in a prime position to further capture market share.

Significant growth in high net worth client segment

We completed the acquisition of Societe Generale's Asian private banking business and select parts of its trust business in Singapore and Hong Kong in late 2014. With access to new clients and strong, experienced teams, the acquisition brought our business to greater heights and enabled us to access products and capabilities beyond Asia.

We enhanced the international dimension of our wealth business by including Societe Generale's expertise in structured products and strength in European research. Combined with DBS' robust investment advisory platform, full suite of banking facilities and deep insights into the Asian markets, we deliver a unique proposition to our clients. This was reflected in a strong showing in our private banking segment which grew 30%.

Our Treasures Private Client business, which caters to high net worth individuals with investible assets of SGD 1.5 - 5 million, saw exponential growth of more than 40% and is the fastest growing wealth segment.

Focus on digital to enhance the customer experience

Our 2015 digital strategy was focused on enhancing the wealth customer experience. We are committed to delivering a next-generation client experience both in our advisory services and through the enhancement of our best-in-class digital wealth platform, iWealth. With the enhancement of our digital platforms, we were able to acquire more than 10,000 new clients online.

We deployed many new features on iWealth. These include eAppointment and Live Chat functionalities, and new capabilities such as real-time multicurrency transactions and Online Equity Trading. We received global recognition by MyPrivateBanking Research for having the best mobile app strategy and portfolio for the third year in a row. Online acquisitions through iWealth doubled during the year, with the platform now a significant contributor to the growth of new-to-bank wealth customers.