1968 founding of DBS

1968

DBS is established

As a young nation strove to forge its path in the 1960s, a small group of people were tasked with the unique responsibility of financing Singapore's fledgling industries and growing new ones.

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1968 first chairman and president

1968

Hon Sui Sen is DBS' first chairman and president

Mr Hon joined DBS from the EDB in 1968, expanding our services beyond development financing to a full-fledged financial institution.

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1971 Rollei

1971

DBS buys into Rollei

Photography aficionados, here's one for the books: Rollei cameras, believed to be among the best in the world in the 1970s, were made in Singapore! The German manufacturer had a factory here. Cameras were proudly engraved with "Made by Rollei Singapore".

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1972 trademark logo

1972

DBS logo makes its appearance

Did you know: our logo was modelled after the caissons of the DBS Building foundation! Since making its first appearance in 1972, our logo has evolved through the years as we sought to showcase the spark within the bank.

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1972 Jurong branch

1972

DBS opens first branch in Jurong

Stallholders depositing paper bags of cash each morning. Gimson, our first and only watchman and carpark attendant, directing customers' cars to the lots. These were some common sights at our very first branch in Jurong.

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1975 DBS building

1975

DBS Building is completed

Our staff certainly had a great view! Standing 50 stories high, DBS Tower One broke the glass ceiling for the construction of office blocks then and was the tallest building in Singapore when it was completed.

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1975 customer service

1975

DBS first to extend banking hours on Saturdays

The first three branches to offer Saturday afternoon banking: Katong, Toa Payoh and Orchard Road.

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1975 Plaza Singapura

1975

DBS opens Plaza Singapura

Raise your hands if you used to queue at Plaza Singapura's Yaohan for its delicious "an-pan", or enjoyed a meal at Swensons or Ponderosa restaurant after your weekly music lessons at Yamaha.

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1976 Small Industries Finance Scheme

1976

DBS co-launches the Small Industries Finance Scheme

True to our mission as a development bank, we focused on helping others grow even while we were a young bank and new player in the banking scene.

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1976 Tokyo branch opening

1976

DBS opens first overseas representative office in Tokyo

Never one to shy away from challenges, we marked our foray outside of Singapore with our first overseas representative office in Tokyo despite not speaking the local language!

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1977 Pandan Valley

1977

DBS launches Pandan Valley condominium

When launched, Pandan Valley condominium was Singapore's largest condominium and one of its first.

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1979 Thomson Yaohan

1979

DBS opens Thomson Plaza

Affectionately known by many as "Thomson Yaohan", Thomson Plaza boasted a Yaohan departmental store, The Wonderful World of Whimsy arcade and Yamaha music store.

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1980 DBS Autosave

1980

DBS launches Autosave

Back in the 1970s, customers with a checking accounts could not earn interest, while those with a current account did not have checking facilities. To make life simpler, we broke new ground and launched DBS Autosave in 1980 - the first interest-bearing current account in Singapore.

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1983 Taiwan branch opening

1983

DBS opens first Taiwan branch in Taipei

The Taiwan branch, our seventh office internationally, would contribute to trade activities in the Republic of China-US-Japan trade triangle and facilitate trade between the Republic of China, Singapore and ASEAN countries.

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1985 SIA

1985

DBS is lead manager for SIA IPO

While Singapore Airlines (SIA) flew its customers across the world, we were helping SIA go global in a different way!

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DBS launches Raffles City

1986

DBS launches Raffles City

Did you know it took us over 17 years to plan and build Raffles City? We wanted to bring life to the CBD area after working hours and grow tourism in Singapore.

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1989 Jakarta representative office

1989

DBS opens representative office in Jakarta

Our expansion across Asia continued with the opening of a representative office in Jakarta. We also obtained approval to establish a joint-venture bank in Jakarta.

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1993 Singtel

1993

DBS lead manages Singtel IPO

A nation of investors was birthed with the Singapore Telecom (Singtel) IPO. We lead-manged the milestone SGD 4.3 billion IPO jointly with a consortium of local banks.

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1994 India representative office

1994

DBS sets up representative office in India

The start of a long-standing strategic presence in India: we were the first Singapore bank to set up a representative office in India in 1994, upgrading it to a formal bank branch a year later.

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1997 internet banking

1997

DBS launches comprehensive internet banking

Remember the days of Netscape Navigator and dial-up Internet? Right from the early days of the World Wide Web, we recognised how this could make banking simpler for you.

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1998 DBS Acquires POSB

1998

DBS acquires POSB

We acquired POSB, a move in line with the government's call for local banks to merge so as to create fewer, but larger and stronger banks that are able to compete on the international stage.

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2001 DBS and Dao Heng Bank

2001

DBS acquires 100% interest in Dao Heng bank

In line with our pan-Asian strategy, we acquired 100% interest in Dao Heng bank and its subsidiary Overseas Trust bank.

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2002 REITs

2002

DBS launches first REIT in Singapore

DBS is a pioneer in the REITs space, having successfully launched CapitaMall Trust, the first REIT in Singapore, in 2002. We have not looked back since.

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2007 China subsidiary

2007

DBS is first Singapore bank to incorporate in China

Headquartered in Shanghai, we were one of the first few foreign banks, and the first Singapore bank, to incorporate a fully owned local subsidiary in China.

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2008 Social Enterprise Package

2008

DBS launches industry-first banking package for social enterprises in Singapore

We believe in supporting businesses that seek to address social needs, so that the larger society and in particular, those in need can benefit.

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2008 CSR Projects in 40 days

2008

DBS celebrates 40th anniversary with project to help the children of Asia

A basketball court for primary school children in the remote village of Juara in Malaysia. Lessons to children in a Cambodia village school about sanitation. These were some of the projects our employees completed as part of our 40th anniversary celebrations.

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2008 Bowa Bank Taiwan

2008

DBS acquires "good bank" assets of Bowa Bank

Further expanding our footprint across Asia, we acquired the "good bank" assets of Bowa Bank and grew our presence in Taiwan.

2009 DBS Social Enterprise Experience

2009

DBS Hong Kong launches social entrepreneurship platform

Continuing our support of social entrepreneurship, DBS Hong Kong launched its flagship community programme, "DBS Social Enterprise Experience", to provide a learning platform for youths to hone their business  skills and cultivate social entrepreneurship.

2010 Money Safe Guarantee

2010

DBS launches industry first "money safe" guarantee

It's important our customers have peace of mind. So for those worried about transacting over the internet, despite high security standards held by the industry, we took the lead and introduced an industry-first "money safe" guarantee.

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2012 Marina Regatta

2012

DBS launches Marina Regatta

We launched the inaugural Marina Regatta to bring life to the Marina Bay area.

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2012 DBS Asia Central @ MBFC Tower 3

2012

DBS moves to MBFC Tower 3

It was a moment marked with excitement, pride and nostalgia as we bade farewell to our Shenton Way headquarters of 38 years and made the historic move to our new head office at Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 3.

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2014 DBS Foundation

2014

DBS launches DBS Foundation

To play our part in shaping a better future for Asia, we cemented our committment to social enterprises with the launch of our SGD 50 million foundation.

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2016 World's Best Digital Bank

2016

DBS is World's Best Digital Bank

We believe that banks tomorrow will look fundamentally different from banks today. That’s why DBS is deeply immersed in the digital agenda.

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2016 Digibank India

2016

DBS launches digibank India

Digibank India was the first mobile-only, paperless, signatureless and branchless bank incorporating ground breaking technology, from biometrics to artificial intelligence.

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2016 DBS launches DAX

2016

DBS launches DAX

We further our commitment to shape the future of banking with the launch of a new innovation facility, DBS Asia X, in Singapore.

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2017 wholly-owned local subsidiry

2017

DBS receives approval to establish wholly-owned subsidiary in India

The approval to establish a locally incorporated wholly-owned local subsidiary in India a year after we launched digibank was another milestone in our journey in India.

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2017 Global Sustainability Index

2017

DBS joins RE100

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing mankind and we are committed to taking a leadership role in promoting sustainable development.

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2017 DBS API

2017

DBS launches world's largest banking API platform

From McDonald's to PropertyGuru to Homage - a wide range of companies have hopped onto our API platform to develop solutions that will bring more convenience and value to our customers.

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2017 POSB Smart Buddy

2017

DBS launches POSB Smart Buddy

In line with Singapore's Smart Nation agenda, we started getting children future-ready by introducing POSB Smart Buddy, the world's first in-school wearable tech savings and payments programme.

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2017 Digibank Indonesia

2017

DBS launches digibank in Indonesia

Following our successful launch in India, we brought digibank to Indonesia in 2017. The groundbreaking mobile-led bank is paperless and signatureless, bringing together an entire suite of innovative technology so customers can enjoy a whole new way of banking.

2018 Women

2018

DBS recognised for gender equality

We're proud to have been named to Bloomberg's 2018 Gender-Equality Index, and recognised for our leadership among firms worldwide in creating a work environment that supports gender equality.

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2018 World’s Best Digital Bank, World’s Best bank for SMEs

2018

World’s Best Digital Bank, World’s Best bank for SMEs

DBS is recognised by Euromoney as the World’s Best Digital Bank for the second time. In a first for the bank, DBS is also named by Euromoney as the World’s Best Bank for SMEs.

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2018 Best Bank in The World

2018

DBS is Best Bank in the World

In a first for a Singapore and Asian bank, DBS Bank has overtaken larger, more established banks to be named Best Bank in the World. The prestigious top award was conferred to DBS by Global Finance in its World’s Best Global Banks 2018 Awards.

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DBS is Global Bank of the Year

2018

DBS is Global Bank of the Year

Cementing its position at the top of the global class, DBS is named Global Bank of the Year by The Banker, a leading publication of the Financial Times.

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Established as the Development Bank of Singapore, and more recently crowned as World's Best Digital Bank, we've always been a different kind of bank. From day one, we were driven by the belief that there are no limits to what we could do, and how far we could go.

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