DBS Bank
Singapore-headquartered bank founded in 1968 as the Development Bank of Singapore, serving consumer, wealth and corporate clients across Asia with a branch in the Dubai International Financial Centre.
Industry: Banking | Location: Singapore, Singapore | Founded: 1968
About DBS Bank
DBS Bank is a Singapore-headquartered bank that serves consumer, wealth management and institutional clients across Asia. It is based at 12 Marina Boulevard in the Marina Bay Financial Centre. The bank was established on 16 July 1968 as the Development Bank of Singapore, set up by the state to take over industrial financing from the Economic Development Board, and began operations on 1 September 1968. Its early lending focused on manufacturing and processing industries and on urban renewal and tourism projects. It was renamed DBS Bank Ltd in 2003. Today it describes itself as a regional bank with core markets including Hong Kong, China, India, Indonesia and Taiwan alongside Singapore. Third-party descriptions put its footprint at between 18 and 19 markets, and the figure varies by source. Tan Su Shan is listed as chief executive and Peter Seah as chairman. Tan previously led the bank's consumer and private banking businesses and, in earlier coverage of DBS's Dubai office, described it as a planned strategic hub for Middle East private banking. For the full year 2025, DBS reported record total income of SGD 22.9 billion, up 3 percent, and record profit before tax of SGD 13.1 billion. Net profit was SGD 11.0 billion, 3 percent lower than a year earlier, after about SGD 400 million of additional tax from the implementation of the 15 percent global minimum tax. Return on equity was 16.2 percent and the cost-income ratio was 40 percent. Fourth-quarter net profit was SGD 2.36 billion, down 10 percent year on year. The 2025 annual report lists total assets of SGD 897 billion and deposits of SGD 610 billion. Wealth management is a stated growth area. Reuters reported that wealth assets under management stood at SGD 632 billion at the end of 2025, against a goal of more than SGD 1 trillion by 2030. The bank said it would open 18 new wealth centres across Asia by the end of 2027, refurbish 36 existing ones, and add more than 600 relationship managers, advisers and platform engineers by the end of 2028. In its 2025 annual report, DBS said it had identified more than 11,000 employees for deeper upskilling or reskilling because of AI-related changes to their roles. In the Gulf, DBS received a Dubai Financial Services Authority licence in 2006 for a branch in the Dubai International Financial Centre, making it the first Singapore-based bank licensed there. In July 2025 it appointed Loic Voide as Head of Private Banking for Middle East and Africa, effective 1 August 2025, based at the DIFC branch and reporting to Vikas Jaidka, regional head for the Middle East, Africa and NRI segments.
Leadership
- Tan Su Shan, Chief Executive Officer and Director
- Peter Seah, Chairman
- Loic Voide, Head of Private Banking, Middle East and Africa
- Vikas Jaidka, Region Head, Middle East, Africa and NRI, DBS Private Bank