DBS Bank is confident that it will hold its own against challenger banks that are set to shake up Singapore's banking landscape when digital bank licenses will be issued.
Challenger banks lack the customer data that incumbents hold, and will face tight regulatory scrutiny over security and handling of data, which incumbents that incumbents are already used to dealing with, DBS Bank's Jimmy Ng told «The Business Times» (behind paywall).
Singapore is following in Hong Kong's footsteps, announcing that digital banking licenses will be issued in the city-state. The licenses, two for digital full-bank and up to three for digital wholesale banks, must all meet the same capital requirements as local banks. Already, companies like Razer, Grab, Validus, and Singtel have indicated their intention to apply.
The bank's incoming head of group technology and operations said that incumbent banks such as DBS hold an advantage over such challengers as they have been banking for a long time and are trusted by their customers.
Digitalization at DBS
DBS' confidence comes from the fact that it has engaged in digitalization initiatives for over a decade, introducing design thinking and a culture of innovation, while overhauling its systems and processes to become «digital to the core» to compete with fintechs at their own game.
In his keynote presentation at the Seamless Asia 2019 summit last week, Bidyut Dumra, executive director and head of Innovation, DBS Bank, said that to prepare for the «attack of the fintechs,» the bank focused on using technology and digital services to increase customer satisfaction and the number of customer hours saved.
By pushing all its products to the cloud and enabling collaboration across the bank's divisions, it has reduced time to market for new products and can rapidly iterate to improve its offerings, Dumra said.
