Piyush Gupta steps down as CEO of DBS at his final AGM with the bank

SINGAPORE - Mr Piyush Gupta has officially stepped down as DBS Bank chief executive and passed the baton to Ms Tan Su Shan.

Ms Tan, who is the first female CEO in DBS’ history and was previously the bank’s deputy CEO, is expected to continue DBS’ focus on high return on equity businesses and global growth.

In a statement read out at DBS’ annual general meeting (AGM) on March 28 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Temasek Holdings CEO Dilhan Pillay said that the partnership between DBS chairman Peter Seah and Mr Gupta created “significant value” for the bank, its franchise, its shareholders and the financial services sector.

Temasek is a major shareholder of DBS.

“Piyush Gupta has driven a total transformation of DBS over these 15 years. His achievements speak for themselves – the accolades that DBS has received over the years, including recognition by Euromoney in 2016 as the first bank to be named World’s Best Digital Bank. In 2018, DBS was named the World’s Best Bank and has received the award multiple times since then,” said Mr Pillay.

He added that DBS will continue to be in the good hands of Mr Seah and Ms Tan, and that Temasek is confident they will “continue to drive DBS’ relentless focus on excellence for value to all its stakeholders”.

Mr Gupta, who is 65 and a Singapore citizen, is stepping down from a high point in the bank’s history.

South-east Asia’s largest bank by assets

reported in February a record performance in 2024,

with full-year net profits up 11 per cent year on year to $11.4 billion.

The board proposed a final dividend of 60 cents per share for the fourth quarter of 2024, bringing the full-year ordinary dividend to $2.22 per share, an increase of 27 per cent from the previous year.

Since Mr Gupta first took on the role of CEO in November 2009, DBS’ share price has increased more than 280 per cent to $46.47 at the close on March 28.

DBS’ market capitalisation crossed $100 billion in May 2024, a first for a Singapore-listed company, the bank said in its annual report. By year-end, its market value had risen further to $124 billion.

Total shareholder returns for 2024 were 51 per cent, comprising a share price gain of 44 per cent and a dividend return of 7 per cent. It is the highest in DBS’ history outside crisis-rebound years, the bank said.

Mr Gupta noted that higher fee income helped to offset the decline in interest income as interest rates fell during the year.

He said that DBS’ wealth management business was a strong growth driver for the bank, having benefited from “a lot of new money which came in”. Assets under management grew 17 per cent year on year in 2024 to $426 billion.

There were, however, some low points in Mr Gupta’s 15-year career with the bank.

In 2023, for example, DBS suffered a series of digital disruptions that led to him receiving a 27 per cent pay cut for the year.

In 2024, he was paid $17.6 million, compared with $11.2 million after the pay cut in 2023.

Mr Gupta noted at the AGM that the board took “very serious cognisance” of the bank’s technology outages in 2021 and 2023, and put in measures to strengthen its technological risk management.

Moving forward, Ms Tan noted that there will be heightened political and economic uncertainty globally. But the bank will focus on delivering medium- and long-term results, she said.

She said that consumers are getting more sophisticated and want more from their banks.

Customers will stay with safe and trusted banks and roll their wealth management with them, she said, noting that wealth management is a high return on equity business and that DBS will continue to grow the segment.

For its transaction banking business, Ms Tan said that DBS has been able to create a high velocity of volumes and transactions with its corporate clients, especially for digital payments and cross-border payments.

“DBS will continue to be at the forefront of this,” she said.

She also noted that intra-Asian trade is growing, and there may be more Western multinational companies that want to invest in Asia and benefit from the demographic growth there.

“So the connectivity flows, the trade flows will continue, and we want to be in that flow,” she added.