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DBS appoints Koh Boon Hwee to its Boards of Directors

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Corporate leader joins DBS on June 15

SINGAPORE, June 15, 2005 - DBS Group Holdings (DBSH) said today it has appointed Koh Boon Hwee, Chairman of Singapore Airlines Limited, to the Boards of DBSH and DBS Bank.

Mr Koh, 54, joins as director on June 15, 2005. A distinguished corporate leader and entrepreneur, he is also Executive Director of MediaRing Ltd and Tech Group Asia Ltd. Among the boards he serves on are: Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd and Agilent Technologies, Inc. in the United States.

Mr Koh also contributes actively to non-profit organisations, and is the current Chairman of the Council of Nanyang Technological University, council member of the Singapore Business Federation and director of the Singapore Harvard Foundation.

He started his career in 1977 at Hewlett Packard and rose to become its Managing Director in Singapore, a post he held from 1985 to 1990. From 1991 to 2000, he was Executive Chairman of the Wuthelam Group.

Mr Koh was also the Chairman of the Singapore Telecom Group and its predecessor organisations from 1986 to 2001. During his 15-year term as Chairman of SingTel, he successfully led the Singapore telecommunications company through its transformation from a statutory board to a publicly-listed company, and from a domestic operator in Singapore to one of Asia Pacific's leading integrated communication service providers.

Mr S. Dhanabalan, Chairman of DBSH and DBS Bank, said: "I join my fellow directors in welcoming Boon Hwee to the Boards. He is highly respected as a corporate visionary and his entrepreneurial instincts have won him respect and admiration among business leaders in Singapore. I look forward to his insightful views and advice."

"We are fortunate to have outstanding captains of industries serve as directors on our boards. Most, if not all, will be leaders of businesses which have dealings with the DBS Group. Over the years, the challenge for us is to capitalise on their market insight and experience without impairing their effectiveness as directors. In view of this, we have put in place policies and procedures within the Group to ensure that dealings with their businesses are done strictly at arm's length without favour or prejudice."

Among his many accolades, Mr Koh was named the Outstanding Manager of the Year in 1991 by Business Times and DHL Worldwide, and was conferred The International Herald Tribune Visionary and Leader Honour in January 2003.

With the appointment of Mr Koh, DBSH Board of Directors now comprises 12 members, including five non-Singaporeans of whom two are executive directors. They are:

• Mr S Dhanabalan - Chairman
• Mr Jackson Tai - Vice Chairman and CEO
• Mr Frank Wong Kwong Shing
• Mr Ang Kong Hua
• Mr Goh Geok Ling
• Mr Koh Boon Hwee
• Mr Kwa Chong Seng
• Mr Leung Chun Ying
• Mr N R Narayana Murthy
• Mr Peter Ong Boon Kwee
• Mr John A. Ross
• Mr Wong Ngit Liong