What a year it has been for DBS – one marked by numerous awards, product launches and service innovations. The bank’s effort in pioneering innovation is well-documented and substantiated by its emphatic success in winning numerous significant awards given out by The Digital Banker over the past year.
Most recently, at the ceremony for the Digital Banker’s Global Retail Banking Innovation Awards 2019 held on 26th September, Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS Group, was named CEO of the Year, whilst DBS was awarded the main title of Best Bank in the World.
DBS’ Strong Financials
DBS celebrated a stellar 2018. Total income reached a new high of SGD $13.2 billion and net profit rose 28% to a record SGD $5.63 billion. In particular, DBS’ wealth income grew by a significant 26%. The ANZ Bank integration was an integral part of this growth, giving DBS access to new customers across five markets, and an increase of AUM of about SGD $22 billion.
In Q2 of 2019, the bank’s profits jumped 17% to SGD $1.6 billion, surpassing market estimates of SGD $1.47 billion and cementing DBS’ status as a leading Asian bank.
Best Bank in the World –
Digital to the core and customer obsessed, with a start-up culture
Clearly, profit is not the sole focus of DBS. The bank seeks to embrace and lead digital disruption, and prides itself on its technological superiority and customer centricity. The bank’s strategy is to reduce cost of acquisition and embed customers into the whole digital ecosystem.
People now think digital and mobile first, and DBS is a bank that is crystal clear on this. The bank’s innovation agenda is underpinned by the following three tenants:
- Being digital to the core – operating with the motto that ‘tech is business and business is tech’ – you shouldn’t be able to tell a businessperson and a developer apart.
- Being relentless in the customer journey focus by embedding the bank deeply into the customer journey in an attempt to become invisible. The aim here is to become intrinsic and intuitive to customers.
- Creating a 27,000-person start-up culture, which means lots of experiments, having plenty of ownership, working in platforms instead of hierarchies, flattening the organisation and making it okay for people to fail.
Clearly, profit is not the sole focus of DBS. The bank seeks to embrace and lead digital disruption, and prides itself on its technological superiority and customer centricity.
A Leader in Data Analytics & Apps
The award-winning DBS Lifestyle app epitomises the bank’s innovation agenda – embracing technology and reimagining the customer journey. The bank’s omni-channel customer journey engages customers through an interactive experience in-app that helps them be aware of deals and offers relevant to their interests and lifestyles. The DBS Lifestyle app team collaborated with an in-house data science team to develop a unique algorithm which applies recommendation models to each customer group, ensuring relevant content and offers. The integration of multiple channels via the app allows customers to access the same offers and promotions via the DBS website and Lifestyle app. Customers are no longer bound by their desktops and can now set their preferences for the offers and promotions and be kept abreast on the move via the DBS Lifestyle app. From the app, customers can also proceed directly to shop at a merchant’s website and/or head down to the physical outlets. The omni-channel integration is also extended to a Loyalty/Rewards programme where customers can make redemptions via the app on the go or proceed to offset their purchases in-store instantly.
The award-winning DBS Lifestyle app epitomises the bank’s innovation agenda – embracing technology and reimagining the customer journey.
DBS has received recognition from The Digital Banker for using CX Analytics Tools over the years. The bank maximises its use of such tools and platforms to enhance each segment of its banking services – consequently, DBS has managed to listen to its communities and continues to give them what they want.
DBS leverages data to be an intelligent bank, which means it has changed the way its tech architecture looks from a few years ago – moving from monolithic infrastructure to micro services, and from legacy to cloud native technology. DBS is an industry leader in creating open ecosystems and is recognised as having the largest number of open APIs among banks in the world.
Digital Transformation
DBS’ digital transformation efforts are globally recognised as one of the most comprehensive for a bank. At the end of 2018, return on equity, at 12.1%, was among the highest for a developed market bank. Over 80% of DBS’ open systems are cloud-ready, its API platform has over 350 APIs, business and tech teams co-drive more than 33 innovation platforms, and over 10,000 employees have been trained on a data-driven curriculum.
DBS embarked on one of the most comprehensive transformation programmes in 2015, by in-sourcing its technology operations. Within two years, the bank successfully in-sourced more than 85 percent of its technology stack.
DBS’ unique recruitment drive – Hack2Hire – also focuses on hiring employees adept in fields such as chaos engineering, along with AI, ML and data-related skills sets to further its digital transformation journey in the future.
DBS Wins at The Digital Banker’s Global Retail Banking Innovation Awards 2019
Winner
Best Chatbot Service
Best Digital Banking Initiative
Excellence in Digital Innovation
Outstanding Digital Innovation in SME Banking Outstanding Innovation Program
Best Data Analytics Initiative
Best Mobile Banking
Best Lifestyle App
Outstanding Personalised 1:1 Marketing Initiative Outstanding Staff, Training, Learning & Development Program
Highly Acclaimed
Best Bank for Millennials
Best Saving Account
Best Payments Innovation
Outstanding Machine Learning
Best Mass Affluent Banking Offering
Best App for Customer Experience
Best Automated Advisory Service
Best Customised Mobile Banking
Outstanding Omni-Channel Integration
Best Customer Loyalty Program
Best Customer Relations & Brand Engagement Initiative
CEO of the Year: Piyush Gupta
Winner: Best Bank in the World
>> To read more about this story and other exclusive features about the digital banking landscape, download the latest issue of The Digital Banker Magazine HERE.
