DBS maintains a representative office in the Philippines to promote and help DBS customers in areas of trade and investment between the Philippines and Singapore.

DBS' presence in the Philippines commenced in 1996 when it was given a license to operate a full branch in the country after the Philippines opened up its banking sector to foreign banks. In 1998, DBS bought into the Bank of Southeast Asia to establish a local commercial bank that was named DBS Bank Philippines, Inc. In 2001, DBS Bank Philippines, Inc. was folded into the BPI Family Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), after DBS acquired a significant shareholding in the latter. BPI is the Philippines' second largest bank. DBS continues to maintain its own team in the Philippines after it established a Manila Representative Office in 2002.

The Manila Representative Office drives DBS' offshore Philippine business, in particular, loan syndication, debt and equity capital markets, as well as treasury. Key initiatives of the representative office include focusing on local companies in the growth industries for their long term funding requirements, targeting companies tapping the equity capital market in either Singapore or Hong Kong, and offering customised structured treasury products to Philippine banks, government financial institutions, and insurance companies.