Content first published by The Banker on 3 December 2025
Over the past decade, DBS has built a reputation not only as a solid and growing bank — the largest in south-east Asia — but also as an innovative organisation. This is no small feat for an institution that used to be considered anything but fast-moving. The lender that now engages customers with artificial intelligence-powered personalised nudges offering guidance on investment and financial decisions, and which expects the economic value of its new technology applications to exceed S$1bn ($770mn) by the end of the year, bears little resemblance to the very traditional, slow organisation of only a decade ago.
DBS’s new chief executive Tan Su Shan knows this well, having witnessed and contributed to the evolving culture during her 15 years at the Singaporean bank; she is acutely aware of the need to continue the work of Piyush Gupta, who led DBS through an era of impressive change between 2009 and March of this year. “What has helped the bank to grow is leveraging the strong culture we have built,” she says. “We started to build a culture of innovation around AI, technology and digital more than a decade ago.”
The results of this cultural shift have been bearing fruit. Over the past year, DBS has continued to push ahead with ingenious new applications of AI and machine learning. It says the total business impact of the more than 370 use cases of the technologies developed in 2024, powered by 1,500 models, was an impressive S$750mn.
Among the many examples of these use cases, the bank’s wealth co-pilot has helped more than 370 relationship managers and investment counsellors to provide a personalised service to clients by turning information, product and research data into insights. This has in turn driven more than 9,000 investment ideas and more than 3,500 wealth planning and market insights since the co-pilot’s launch in early 2025.
DBS also upgraded its client connect platform with an account planning module in March 2025. Through the One Bank approach, which ties together various teams within the bank, the account planning module gives wealth relationship managers the ability to uncover opportunities within the bank’s existing client base. After promoting them to consider opportunities around expansion plans, future listing or the need for corporate treasury management solutions, these opportunities are then referred to the appropriate teams within the bank for follow-up.
Across the bank, 90 per cent of staff have been given access to DBS-GPT, an in-house generative AI tool providing access to information from across the organisation and supporting tasks like research and writing. Additionally, staff in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and India can support customers by using the bank’s customer service officer assistant, an in-house GenAI tool that has reduced call handling time by transcribing, summarising and recommending solutions to customers in real time.
In Singapore, in response to growing concerns over financial scams, DBS introduced a machine learning model that works alongside an existing rules-based engine to increase the precision of real-time detection and prevention. The model is able to scan millions of digital transactions a day.
The bank passed a number of financial milestones too, with market capitalisation surpassing S$100bn in 2024, the first time this has been achieved by a Singapore-listed company. And in June market capitalisation passed $100bn, rising to close to $120bn as The Banker went to press.
In 2024, DBS recorded steady growth, seeing an 11 per cent increase in net profits and Tier 1 capital increasing by 11 per cent. Return on equity held steady at 18 per cent, with cost-to-income ratio also remaining unchanged at 39.9 per cent. The non-performing loan ratio was also the same as in 2023, at 1.1 per cent.
Tan also notes DBS’s focus on purpose. As part of the bank’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, it launched an enhanced transition finance framework, supporting companies — particularly those in hard-to-abate sectors — to transform themselves into low-carbon operations by providing access to capital and expertise. Technology and its applications in banking are set to play an important role in the green transition too. More broadly, the potential of new technologies can only be fulfilled by organisations that have a clear strategy and a flexible structure.
“We have taken on difficult but transformational projects in the past, which includes moving the bank from vertical silos to a horizontal organisation with teams built around customer journeys,” says Tan. “We stand ready for whatever the next technological revolution is thanks to how we manage, how we organise and the firm foundation layer we have built.”
Singapore: DBS
Focusing on supporting the needs of its domestic customers and enhancing its AI capabilities gave DBS the edge in taking the award for Bank of the Year Singapore
Customers have also taken action, with 1.5mn customers in Singapore alone enabling payments controls and using the digiVault protections, which enables them to lock their funds and prevent digital transfers out.
The bank worked with Enterprise Singapore and the Singapore Fintech Association to pilot programmable grant disbursements using DBS’s permissioned blockchain and smart contracts. This demonstrated how blockchain can be used in distributing government disbursements with greater control and efficiency, providing businesses with quicker access to government support. The permissioned blockchain gives full visibility of the full disbursement process.
In October 2024, the bank enhanced its transaction banking capabilities with the introduction of blockchain-powered DBS token services. Using smart contracts, the product suite enables large companies operating across multiple jurisdictions to settle multi-currency intra-group transactions instantly at any time of day. This is achieved by the bank’s permissioned blockchain being integrated with the core payment engine and with multiple industry payment infrastructures.
The bank is further exploring the use of blockchain for the digitisation of trade finance.
Tan Su Shan, CEO of DBS, says: “We are always looking forward, but remain rooted in a deep sense of purpose and with a firm commitment to our relationships. We are an Asian bank, and come hell or high water we are committed to the region. We will be the dependable lighthouse in the storm that our clients can gravitate towards in the difficult times.”
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