The Group Head Digital Bank at DBS is leaving to pursue a new role in another organisation outside Singapore. His successor has been named.
In a statement to finews.asia a DBS spokesperson confirmed the move and the new appointment which takes immediate effect.
Olivier Crespin who was appointed Group Head Digital Bank at DBS in March 2014 is stepping down. Crespin joined DBS in July 2010 as Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer for DBS Wealth Management.
Prior to joining DBS, he was Citibank’s Global Head of operations for the Private Bank.
Digital Commitment Change?
In 2014 DBS Chief Executive Piyush Gupta announced that the bank would spend an additional 200 million Singapore dollars on its digital push over the next three years, in an initiative led by Crespin.
This investment was to be on top of the 600 million Singapore dollars it already spends on technology every year. DBS frequently likes to say that the acronym stands for Digital Bank of Singapore.
Will the exit of Crespin now see a change in this commitment, with either more funding going into the technology push or a paring back?
New Digital Bank Head
With the departure of Crespin, the Regional Head of eBusiness, Sandeep Lal, has been concurrently appointed as Group Head of Digital Bank.
In the new role Lal will continue to report to Pearlyn Phau, Deputy Group Head of Consumer Banking & Wealth Management.
Lal joined DBS in 2008, before joining DBS, he was Regional Head for PayPal– and started with PayPal from its startup days in the US in 2000.
Prior to that, he worked with Citibank for 18 years in various senior roles and was based in Singapore, New York, Japan and India.
