Singapore’s DBS posted an all-time high in net profit for 2023. Its leadership also took a pay cut over the series of disruptions to its digital banking platform.
Net profit at DBS rose 26 percent to a record S$10.3 billion ($7.7 billion) in 2023, according to the bank’s annual results. When including one-time items – integration costs linked to the acquisition of Citi’s Taiwan unit and charitable commitments – the bank’s net profit rose 23 percent year-on-year to S$10 billion.
Total income grew 22 percent to S$20.2 billion, driven primarily by a 33 percent increase in net interest income from the commercial book to S$14.3 billion. This was offset by a 14 percent increase in expenses to S$8.1 billion, S$590 million in allowances for credit and other losses, up from S$237 million in 2022, as well as a 38 percent decline in treasury markets income to S$725 million
Digital Disruptions
Despite the record performance, the bank cut pay for its senior leadership over a series of digital disruptions that led the Monetary Authority of Singapore to impose a six-month pause on non-essential IT changes in November. The variable compensation of CEO Piyush Gupta was cut by 30 percent to S$4.14 million. Overall, Gupta and other group management committee members saw their variable pay collectively reduced by 21 percent.
«DBS has made a whole-of-bank effort and committed S$80 million to implementing its technology uplift and resilience roadmap,» the bank said. «These efforts will enable the bank to better pre-empt disruptions to its services, provide customers with alternate channels for payments and account inquiries during disruptions, and shorten incident recovery time.»
