DBS named Global Bank of the Year | English
Cementing its position at the top of the global class, DBS Bank has been named Global Bank of the Year by The Banker, a leading publication of the Financial Times. DBS beat competing banks from around the globe to clinch the top accolade in The Banker’s Bank of the Year Awards 2018, and is the only bank to receive the top honour in all three categories – global, regional and country – winning Asia-Pacific Bank of the Year and Singapore Bank of the Year as well.
Winning The Banker’s Global Bank of the Year award adds to the slew of global accolades DBS has won this year. DBS now holds two global best bank awards concurrently – with its win of Global Finance’s Best Bank in the World in August – making it the first Asian bank in the world to attain this achievement. Earlier in the year, Euromoney also named DBS the World’s Best Digital Bank and the World’s Best Bank for SMEs.
Regarded as the industry standard for banking excellence, The Banker’s Bank of the Year awards judge the world’s leading financial institutions on their ability to deliver returns, gain strategic advantage and serve their markets. Brian Caplen, Editor of The Banker, said, "DBS is a very worthy winner of The Banker's Global Bank of the Year award. The bank is a world leader in digital transformation and has successfully shown how banks must change culture -- as well as technology -- to counter the threat to their business from big tech companies."
DBS’ digital transformation programme first began in 2014. It is now recognised by global industry peers as having one of the most comprehensive digital transformation programmes for a bank, encompassing being digital to the core, journey thinking, culture change, and a methodology to quantify the financial impact of digitalisation. The bank has seen higher returns on equity coming through, forecasting ROE to reach 13%, which would place it within the top decile of developed market banks. In the areas of customer and employee satisfaction, DBS was recognised as having best-in-class service in its sector in the last decade by Singapore Management University’s Institute of Service Excellence. DBS has also been included in Aon Hewitt’s Asia Pacific Regional Best Employer list since 2016.
The bank’s digitalisation drive has led to numerous innovations that have streamlined legacy processes, boosted productivity, and improved customer experience, amongst other benefits. In 2018, DBS ventured into chat commerce with “Foodster”, Southeast Asia’s first bank-led retail chatbot. The bank has also introduced consumer marketplaces for cars, property and electricity, and last year launched the POSB Smart Buddy – the world’s first in-school wearable tech savings and payments programme.
On the sustainability front, DBS Foundation continues to mentor social enterprises across Asia. It launched the DBS Social Enterprise Support Programme in October 2018, in conjunction with the third edition of its regional Social Enterprise Summit. This year, DBS also became the first bank in Southeast Asia to be included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (Asia Pacific), and was also named to the FTSE4Good Global Index for the second consecutive year.
Piyush Gupta, DBS CEO, said, "Winning the Global Bank of the Year caps off a year of global accolades for the bank. This is testament to our strengths not just in Asia, but among banking leaders worldwide. In particular, I am very pleased that our commitment to reimagining banking is clearly setting us apart as a different kind of bank, one that is leading the way amid a time of rapid change and industry disruption. All of us at DBS are honoured to fly the Singapore flag high once again."