BACK
ACCELERATING
GROWTH
We continue to deepen our presence in Asia through strategic growth opportunities. The digitalisation capabilities we have put in place since 2014 have also enabled us to better support our customers, helping them navigate the pandemic.
NEW OPPORTUNITIES
INTELLIGENT
BANKING
LEVERAGING DIGITAL
INTUITIVE AND INVISIBLE
Expanding our presence in Asia
Lakshmi Vilas Bank
Since the successful amalgamation of India’s Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) with DBS Bank India Limited in November 2020, we have made steady progress in growing the business. Over the past year, LVB’s current and savings account balances, as well as its gold loans portfolio, have grown. Wealth management sales have also increased. Analytics-based lending is being offered through the LVB network in a phased manner.
Citigroup’s consumer banking business in Taiwan
To accelerate our growth in Asia, we agreed to acquire Citigroup’s consumer banking business in Taiwan (Citi Consumer Taiwan) in January 2022. Citi Consumer Taiwan is widely recognised as the best foreign consumer bank in the market with a high-quality customer base and top-class management team and workforce. Following the acquisition, DBS will be Taiwan’s largest foreign bank by assets.
DBS Securities (China)
DBS Securities (China) received its securities business licence in June 2021, becoming the first Sino-Singapore securities joint venture. During the year, we successfully completed five onshore investment banking deals.
Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank
DBS acquired a 13% stake in Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank (SZRCB), becoming its biggest shareholder. SZRCB is a well-managed profitable franchise, and the investment allows us to accelerate our Greater Bay Area (GBA) strategy via Shenzhen, arguably GBA’s fastest-growing city.
Wealth Management Connect Scheme
DBS Bank (Hong Kong) is the only Hong Kong bank to partner two banks – Postal Savings Bank of China and DBS Bank (China) – in the Wealth Management Connect Scheme. Through this collaboration, we are able to tap on the expertise and network of each partner to give our customers in the Greater Bay Area access to a more diversified suite of investment products and solutions, and digital banking capabilities.
Muzinich Asia Pacific (APAC) Private Debt Fund
We became an anchor investor in private debt fund, Muzinich Asia Pacific (APAC) Private Debt I. The fund focuses on identifying special situations opportunities arising from fundamentally-sound businesses that have been dislocated by pandemic disruptions, while providing them financing support to tide through these difficult times.
Making banking intelligent, intuitive and invisible
Helping customers grow their wealth with DBS NAV Planner
In 2021, we continued to improve the functionality and features of DBS NAV Planner, including leveraging artificial intelligence and hyper-personalisation technology to generate 30 million insights each month to help our customers manage their money better.
Enabling SMEs to access digital trade financing
Digitalisation was a lifebuoy that kept SMEs afloat during the pandemic. Through our ecosystem-led platforms, we were able to digitally onboard more than 4,000 suppliers so that they could get access to digital financing solutions quickly and seamlessly throughout the pandemic. For instance, more than nine in 10 of our supply chain finance transactions were carried out through our digital platforms in 2021. We also leveraged our extensive API suite to deliver a broad array of digital trade solutions to help our customers navigate the disruptions seamlessly.
Protecting customers with self-managed card security access features
We ramped up payments security for our 3.6 million debit and credit cardholders in Singapore, enabling them to personally manage the security access on their card accounts via a comprehensive suite of payment control features. These features, which can be conveniently accessed through the DBS/ POSB digibank app, act as multiple locks that cardholders can choose to activate in order to block unauthorised transactions.
