DBS announced today that it has been named the inaugural winner of the Digital Transformation Award in the Hackett Group’s Digital Awards 2020. The bank was also a Finalist in the ‘Automation – Artificial Intelligence’ category, for its Joy Corporate Banking Chat Bot. This is the first time that a Singapore company has been recognised in the Hackett Group’s awards.

In awarding DBS with the Digital Transformation Award, the Hackett Group noted how the bank has set out to address the radical shift in banking in the digital age by transforming multiple aspects of its business, using a range of automation, analytics and Artificial Intelligence technologies. Hackett highlighted how these efforts have proven particularly invaluable with the onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic, as the bank managed to leverage its Analytics-Based Operations Resource Management (ORM) tool to model various operational scenarios and enable more efficient capacity planning.

Through the simulation capability of the ORM tool, the bank was able to obtain additional insights on number of staff required for optimal efficiency, and suggested overtime hours in order to support volume spikes in various business areas. One area in which this was applied was in SME Operations. As a result, the bank was able to avail more than $1.1 billion in loans to micro- and small-enterprise customers during the pandemic, even as more than 80% of the bank’s staff worked from home.

Simulations from the ORM tool also helped DBS’ securities operations team to quickly adjust its manpower resource planning during the pandemic. This enabled it to process 60% more equity transactions in April and May 2020, without any compromise in accuracy or timeliness, even as global markets entered the most volatile period in recent history.

Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS Bank, said, “Covid-19 has demonstrated the value of our digitalisation efforts, both in respect of customers as well as employees. For our customers, our digital onboarding and transaction capabilities allowed easy access across products such as payments, trade, equity trading and investing. This resulted in above market increases in volumes and allowed us to be the principal channel for the government to activate several relief programmes. For employees, easy remote working, AI-driven contact tracing and sensor-led social distancing created safety and trust. We hope to retain our leadership in these areas in a post-Covid world.”

Headquartered in the USA, The Hackett Group is an intellectual property-based strategic consultancy and leading benchmarking and best practices firm to global companies, with offerings that include smart automation and enterprise cloud application implementation. Past winners of the Hackett Digital Awards have included Bayer, IBM, HP and Shell.

The accolades from The Hackett Group follow DBS’ recent naming to Forbes’ 2020 list of World’s Best Banks. Based on Forbes’ survey of more than 40,000 banking customers worldwide, DBS placed first out of the 29 domestic and international banks ranked in India, and second out of the 15 ranked in Indonesia.

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About DBS
DBS is a leading financial services group in Asia with a presence in 18 markets. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, DBS is in the three key Asian axes of growth: Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The bank’s “AA-” and “Aa1” credit ratings are among the highest in the world.

Recognised for its global leadership, DBS has been named “World’s Best Bank” by Euromoney, “Global Bank of the Year” by The Banker and “Best Bank in the World” by Global Finance. The bank is at the forefront of leveraging digital technology to shape the future of banking, having been named “World’s Best Digital Bank” by Euromoney. In addition, DBS has been accorded the “Safest Bank in Asia” award by Global Finance for 11 consecutive years from 2009 to 2019.

DBS provides a full range of services in consumer, SME and corporate banking. As a bank born and bred in Asia, DBS understands the intricacies of doing business in the region’s most dynamic markets. 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 our 28,000 staff, representing over 40 nationalities. For more information, please visit www.dbs.com.

DBS first Singapore company to clinch global digital transformation award