DBS Bank has received worldwide recognition for its digital agenda, becoming the first bank to be named World’s Best Digital Bank at the prestigious Euromoney Awards for Excellence. According to Euromoney, “the award for the world’s best digital bank was one of the hardest-fought of all”, with BBVA, Citi and ING named as other strong contenders for this hotly contested award. In the end, DBS pipped the others for the global award because of all-pervasive nature of its digital transformation.
"Leaders in digital banking talk about the difference between digitising aspects of a bank and creating a truly digital financial institution," said Clive Horwood, editor of Euromoney magazine. "DBS is doing this better than any other bank. It is demonstrably the case that digital innovation pervades every part of DBS, from consumer to corporate, SMEs to transaction banking and even the DBS Foundation."
DBS’ win marks the first time a Singapore as well as Asian bank has won a global accolade from Euromoney, one of the world’s leading financial publications. Euromoney also named DBS Asia’s Best Bank, another first for a Singapore bank.
Said Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS Bank, “At DBS, we believe that banks tomorrow will look fundamentally different from banks today. That’s why we have spent the past three years deeply immersed in the digital agenda. This has been an all-encompassing journey, whether it is changing the culture and mindsets of our people, re-architecting our technology infrastructure, or leveraging Big Data, biometrics and AI to make banking simple and seamless for customers. Winning Euromoney’s World’s Best Digital Bank award is great encouragement to us, and testament to the strides we’ve made in re-imagining banking.”
In April, DBS launched digibank in India, the country’s first mobile-only bank. Digibank is branchless, paperless and signatureless, and leverages a combination of groundbreaking technology such as biometrics and artificial intelligence to revolutionise the overall customer experience.
In its other markets, DBS’ retail, wealth and corporate customers are also increasingly engaging with the bank digitally. In 2015, 16% of DBS’ new wealth customers opened accounts with the bank digitally. 51% of SME customers in Singapore did the same through DBS’ Online Account Opening Service. Today, over 90% of the bank’s remittances are also done by customers digitally using DBS Remit. The bank will also be introducing voice biometric authentication at its Singapore Customer Centre by the end of this year.
To create a “fintech-like” workforce, the bank encourages its people to embrace a digital mindset through experiential learning and experimentation through programmes such as hackathons. Last year, more than 2,000 employees gained exposure to digital culture, agile methodology and other digital concepts.
More recently, DBS was the first Singapore bank to pilot cloud-based productivity technology, Office 365, in the workplace, with plans to extend this to its entire workforce of 22,000 by year-end.
Established in 1969 in London, Euromoney Institutional Investor is one of Europe’s largest business and financial publishers. The Euromoney Awards for Excellence was introduced in 1991 and is recognised as the benchmark for leading firms in financial services.
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About DBS DBS - Living, Breathing AsiaDBS is a leading financial services group in Asia, with over 280 branches across 18 markets. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, DBS has a growing presence in the three key Asian axes of growth: Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The bank's capital position, as well as "AA-" and "Aa1" credit ratings, is among the highest in Asia-Pacific. DBS has been recognised for its leadership in the region, having been named “Asia’s Best Bank” by The Banker, a member of the Financial Times group, and “Best Bank in Asia-Pacific” by Global Finance. The bank has also been named “Safest Bank in Asia” by Global Finance for seven consecutive years from 2009 to 2015.
DBS provides a full range of services in consumer, SME and corporate banking activities across Asia. As a bank born and bred in Asia, DBS understands the intricacies of doing business in the region’s most dynamic markets. These market insights and regional connectivity have helped to drive the bank’s growth as it sets out to be the Asian bank of choice. DBS is committed to building lasting relationships with customers, and positively impacting communities through supporting social enterprises, as it banks the Asian way. It has also established a SGD 50 million foundation to strengthen its corporate social responsibility efforts in Singapore and across Asia.
With its extensive network of operations in Asia and emphasis on engaging and empowering its staff, DBS presents exciting career opportunities. The bank acknowledges the passion, commitment and can-do spirit in all of our 22,000 staff, representing over 40 nationalities. For more information, please visit www.dbs.com.
