Retail Banking Institute | DBS gets a new leader

DBS gets a new leader

Tan Su Shan, former head of the consumer bank, is getting ready to take on the leadership role at DBS as the first woman to run the bank. "The Singapore-based bank has had a recent run of record annual profits. Its shares touched a record in late February, and the company has flirted near $100 billion in market value," writes Bloomberg in a profile. "Flush with capital, DBS is also returning billions to shareholders, and has become a regional wealth heavyweight competing with international rivals like HSBC and Citigroup." She will be making a heavy bet on AI, and told Bloomberg that almost one third of the bank's employees will receive additional training and upskilling including in data science and AI technologies. "A development bank that was originally founded to boost the local economy, DBS today has around 41,000 employees and operates in 19 markets, mostly in Asia. Its return-on-equity last year was 18%, on par with JPMorgan Chase and higher than that of HSBC and Standard Chartered. Tan previously ran DBS's two largest businesses, the wealth and consumer group, as well as institutional banking." She first worked for Barings and then for ING when the Dutch bank acquired Barings for a nominal sum following the bank's collapse over the Nick Leeson fraud. She later worked for Morgan Stanley and Citigroup before joining DBS in 2010 and building up its wealth division. One of Bloomberg's sources said she has been a hands-on manager, often testing the bank's products and customer experiences herself before they go to market. She will take over the leadership role on 28 March.