How does DBS continue to outperform amidst heightened geopolitical uncertainty and rapid technological advancement?

In an increasingly fragmented, volatile and complex operating landscape, we continue to outperform by leveraging our core strengths as a Dependable, Diversifier, Digital and Disruptor bank. This deliberate approach, anchored on both resilience and agility, enables us to mitigate risks effectively while proactively identifying and capitalising on emerging opportunities.

Dependable: Being resilient in a volatile world

When things are stable, resilience can go unnoticed, but when big shifts happen, the true strength of an organisation is revealed. Now more than ever, clients are looking for a dependable, smart and future-forward bank to navigate a multipolar and rapidly evolving world. With our roots as a Singapore bank and trusted reputation built over the years, we are well positioned to be that partner.

Resilience remains the bedrock of our organisation, which means we need to demonstrate financial strength, operational robustness, and reliability in data and technology systems.

To fortify our financial resiliency, we manage our balance sheet nimbly and drive key growth engines. For example, in 2025, in spite of significant interest rate and FX headwinds, our total income rose to a new high. This was due to our proactive hedging and agile balance sheet management which cushioned these headwinds whilst we continued to capture structural growth opportunities across the franchise.

As a testament to our financial strength, we have been recognised by Global Finance as ‘Safest Bank in Asia’ for 17 consecutive years and are ranked number two globally among the ‘World’s 50 Safest Commercial Banks’.

Of equal importance is our technological and operational resilience. We continuously enhance our technology and data architecture, including by automating critical controls to predict, prevent, detect and recover swiftly from disruptions. We have also implemented robust frameworks to guard against risks from emerging technologies.

Diversifier: Seizing opportunities in a new world order

As we move towards a new world order, we are seeing greater diversification by clients as a natural response. Whether in currencies, supply chains or investments, the impetus to diversify, especially to regions with strong rule of law and market stability, will present significant opportunities for DBS.

Our future-ready solutions and differentiated capabilities empower corporate clients to transform their supply chains, diversify trade corridors, manage cross-border risks and establish alternative pathways. Notably, as the sole Singapore bank appointed as an RMB clearing bank, we are well placed to support clients’ diverse trade and payment needs. As capital flows evolve, our Financial Institutions Group and institutional investor franchises are strategically positioned to support growth amid the resurgence of Asian capital markets.

We are also seeing strong growth in our wealth management franchise. This is due to increasing demand from wealthy individuals seeking diversification and safe harbours for their assets in Asia. Our strong Asian presence, holistic solutions, digital prowess and integrated bank-wide approach enable us to capitalise on the structural growth of wealth inflows into the region.

Digital: Shaping the future of banking

Our early and sustained investments in data and technology have established a robust foundation for industrialising AI across hundreds of meaningful use cases. This positions us to harness the game-changing potential of Gen AI and Agentic AI. These technologies empower our employees to focus on higher-value work by reducing toil and augmenting their capabilities with machine intelligence. They also enable us to transform our operating models and deliver truly differentiated customer experiences. With the AI revolution unfolding apace, our agility and nimbleness, as well as deep data and technology capabilities, enable us to stay at the forefront of rapid technology developments and deploy these technologies securely at speed and scale.

Disruptor: Capitalising on disruptive trends with innovation and agility

As tokenisation and programmable money gained momentum with the passing of the Genius Act, we built on our head start in digital assets to avail our clients of new and innovative products on the blockchain. Notably, we extended our lead with industry firsts such as launching Singapore’s first tokenised money-market fund with Franklin Templeton and completed the world’s first over-the-counter cryptocurrency options inter-bank trade.

Furthermore, our DBS Token Services allows corporate clients to leverage tokenised deposits to reimagine operating models with 24/7, programmable, secure and instantaneous value transfers.

Our culture of innovation and agility enables us to capitalise on disruptive structural forces. We have transformed the way we work by pivoting towards horizontal customer journeys and breaking down inter-departmental silos. This integrated approach allows us to build deeper, stickier relationships with customers through holistic advisory and customised solutions, enabling nimble responses to evolving needs and market shifts. We are further transforming our operating models by leveraging Gen AI and Agentic AI for significant productivity and efficiency gains.

These points of differentiation have set us apart and will continue to stand us in good stead going forward.

How are you harnessing AI to propel business growth while maintaining cost discipline?

AI continues to advance rapidly, moving beyond simple chatbots into the Reasoning Era. Breakthroughs such as the introduction of GPT-5 and Gemini 3 among others globally marked a new stage of AI development, including reliable deep thinking capabilities at speed as well as reduced inference costs.

In 2025, DBS significantly scaled its AI adoption, deploying over 2,000 models and more than 430 use cases across the bank. These data analytics and AI/ ML initiatives generated approximately SGD 1 billion in economic value during the year. Gen AI was also instrumental in catalysing numerous new vertical and horizontal solutions, enhancing employee productivity and improving workflow efficiency. For instance, DBS-GPT is accessible to all employees in our core markets, providing role-based access to over four million DBS policies and content. This has led to faster problem-solving, reduced time spent on policy lookups and more informed decision-making. Specialised vertical solutions further empower our teams to deliver personalised, high-quality customer interactions at scale.

We also aimed to extend AI’s application to transformative initiatives which have an enterprise-wide impact, or what we call Operating Model Transformations (OMTs). OMTs involve re-engineering processes for human and AI collaboration, leveraging tools to enhance workflows, reskilling our people for new and augmented roles, and implementing simplified, adaptive organisational structures. We are pleased to report that we surpassed our 2025 target of six OMTs, completing nine initiatives for the year.

A significant breakthrough was observed within our technology teams, who integrated Gen AI to substantially reduce the time required for tasks such as test case generation and documentation of user stories, from months to weeks. This greater end-to-end process automation has also bolstered resiliency and led to material efficiency gains.

Our operations teams are also leveraging AI to provide customers with self-service options anytime and anywhere. DBS Joy, our first direct-to-customer Gen AI-enabled corporate banking chatbot, offers seamless 24/7 customer support with instant and accurate query resolution, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction. Since its launch in July 2025, over 20,000 unique corporate and SME customers have used DBS Joy, contributing to a 23% increase in customer satisfaction scores due to its ease of use and relevant, accurate responses. Another use case is what we call CodeBuddy, which combines Gen AI and Agentic AI to help our data professionals achieve time savings of up to 20% on certain coding tasks.

With Agentic AI gaining prominence, we foresee a transition from AI as a copilot to AI operating on autopilot as we integrate agents with autonomous capabilities into workflows to unlock new possibilities for our people. Governance remains paramount and our robust Responsible AI framework provides a firm foundation in understanding how best to deploy AI agents safely. We also recognise the potential challenges AI may pose to our employees and have launched upskilling and reskilling initiatives to help them adapt and grow.

While we decisively harness AI’s new and emerging capabilities, particularly those of Agentic AI, our approach remains grounded in financial discipline and delivering tangible business impact. We have consistently leveraged our data capabilities to measure returns with precision, from instituting Digital Value Capture in 2016 to embedding a Performance Management Architecture within our horizontal customer journeys. In 2021, DBS was one of only two banks globally to disclose the economic impact of our data analytics and AI/ ML initiatives. Going forward, as we scale our OMTs, we will be looking to track the productivity saves and capacity gains in these areas.

We have also established robust frameworks that enable us to rapidly capitalise on new opportunities as AI continues to evolve. These frameworks serve two primary purposes: firstly, to unite the strengths of our teams, business units and market segments to deliver holistic, AI-powered value propositions; and secondly, to enable strategic investments in high-potential AI use cases while fostering meaningful experimentation. Our commitment to tracking business outcomes ensures that capital is allocated only to initiatives with proven traction, while allowing for course-correction for those that fall short. By applying the same level of rigour to our AI approach, we are well-positioned to capture the upside of AI without compromising on return on investment.

We fully anticipate that the pace of AI development will continue to be breathtaking. However, rather than being swayed by hype, we will remain grounded in our approach to be an AI-enabled bank with a heart, where our people and AI work synergistically to better serve our customers.