The Enormous DBS Has A New Indian-Origin CEO
Currently holding the positions of chief executive officer and director of DBS Group, the largest bank in Southeast Asia based on total assets, is Singaporean banker Piyush Gupta. In addition, he serves on the board of Enterprise Singapore and as vice chairman of the Institute of International Finance.
Childhood and schooling
Born in Meerut, India, Gupta was the third child of R.S. and Minnie Gupta. He graduated from St. Columba’s High School and St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Economics. Following graduation, he enrolled in the Postgraduate Diploma in Management programme at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Career
Gupta began working as a management trainee at Citibank India in 1982, when he was just 22 years old. After working for Citibank India on a number of projects, he eventually became the head of India’s chief of staff. As the Asia head’s chief of staff, he relocated to Singapore in 1991. In 1998, he was appointed as Indonesia’s country manager. He left Citigroup in 2000 to launch a dot-com business, but he later dissolved it and returned to Citigroup in 2001. Before taking on the position of country officer in Singapore and leading the Corporate and Investment Bank in ASEAN, Gupta served as country officer in Malaysia from 2002 to 2007 and contributed to the expansion of Citigroup’s branch network.
He departed Citigroup in 2009 to become the CEO of DBS Group. In his role as CEO, he was recognised with multiple business accolades and is acknowledged for transforming DBS into a preeminent financial services enterprise in Asia. Gupta also recognised early in 2013 that DBS needed to adopt a large tech mindset. “Amazon or Alibaba has to be our point of reference. We needed to put aside our concerns about what other institutions may do. We have to begin considering the potential impact of big tech.
He oversaw DBS’s two exchange launches and two acquisitions in 2020. [11] During a panel discussion titled Global Trends and Web 3.0 at the Singapore FinTech Festival in 2021, Gupta made a cautious statement about the significance of a future blockchain-driven Web 3.0 world.
The CEO of DBS Group, the largest bank in Singapore and one of the most paid in the nation, Piyush Gupta, witnessed a 27.3% decrease in his total salary for 2023, according to the lender’s annual report released on Wednesday.
According to the annual report, Gupta’s total compensation decreased from S$15.4 million in 2022 to S$11.2 million ($8.34 million) in 2023.
The largest bank in Southeast Asia reported a record 2023 profit with an 18% return on equity. However, in an effort to accept responsibility for the disruptions to digital banking at DBS last year, variable pay was reduced. This was followed by a decrease in total compensation.
The Board’s scorecard rating decreased from the previous year due to deficiencies in technological resiliency, even though 2023 saw record earnings and outperformance in numerous sectors.
The consequences on consumers and the franchise of its lack of technological resilience, DBS continued, “were taken into account when determining the scorecard performance of both the group and the CEO.”
