DBS Private Bank, the eighth largest player in Asia, has been named the world’s “Most Innovative Private Bank” three times over by the industry’s leading journals. Last month, DBS Private Bank was lauded for having the world’s “Most Innovative Business Model” at the Private Bank International (PBI) Global Wealth Summit & Awards 2015. Global Finance followed by naming DBS as the “Most Innovative Private Bank in the World” in their World’s Best Private Banks Awards for 2015. Finally, in results just revealed in The Banker/Professional Wealth Management’s Global Private Banking Awards 2015, DBS clinched “Best Private Bank in Innovation” – becoming the first Asian bank to win this accolade.

Professional Wealth Management (PWM)’s Editor in Chief Yuri Bender said, “We were impressed by the bank's growing reputation in both its Singapore home market and nearby countries in South-East Asia. Particularly important to the judges was the notion that innovation is not seen as a one-off project by DBS, but as part of a continuous automation of all internal processes and a genuine desire to lift the quality of all digital capabilities. Increased scale since the take-over of the Societe Generale Asian banking franchise is alerting much of the private wealth community to the DBS story and our panel of judges believes this is a bank to watch. The innovative move to provide a Big Data solution through a system for relationship managers, powered by IBM Watson, is being closely monitored by rivals, consultants and clients alike.”

Since 2010, DBS’ wealth management business – comprising DBS Treasures, DBS Treasures Private Client and DBS Private Bank – has grown consistently by about 20 per cent annually. As at the end of 2014, DBS’ high net worth AUM and AUM for all wealth customers stood at SGD92 billion and SGD133 billion respectively. From end 2014 to end June 2015, DBS’ wealth management AUM grew 6% and stands at around SGD141 billion today.

In 2014, the bank made a commitment to investing SGD 200 million over three years in digital banking and has since rolled out initiatives such as RM Mobility, which provides relationship managers with an integrated mobile platform used to engage customers from the very beginning of their banking experience with DBS. DBS also recently introduced an enhanced version of DBS iWealth, its all-in-one digital wealth management platform. The state-of the-art platform is customisable, provides powerful features and services that allow customers to manage their wealth and stay updated on market trends while on the go. In March 2015, DBS piloted DBS Wealth Adviser powered by IBM Watson with its relationship managers and investment specialists, who are using it to process reams of research and highlight areas of interest, with the aim of boosting their ability to make informed and relevant product recommendations to customers.

Said Tan Su Shan, Group Head of Consumer Banking & Wealth Management at DBS Bank, “These accolades are testament to the strides we have made in embracing the digital world across the bank and we are thrilled to be recognised as the world’s best in innovation. We are proud to represent DBS and also Singapore on the world stage. The wins are also an endorsement of DBS’ strong culture of innovation and focus on placing the customer at the heart of all we do. We are not staying still and will continue to focus on enhancing the delivery of our financial and banking capabilities to our clients. This includes our initiatives to deliver the next generation client experience in providing advice and the ongoing development of our best-in-class digital wealth platform.”