Billion Dollar Club: FINANCIAL SERVICES

The list of accolades for DBS Group Holdings is getting pretty long and for a good reason. In May 2024, Southeast Asia’s largest bank became the first Singapore-listed company to achieve a market capitalisation of more than $100 billion, quadruple from 2009. Since then, the value investors have accorded to this entity has crossed $150 billion. Besides capital gains, shareholders have received some $40 billion in dividends since 2009 and are set to receive more.

“2024 was a standout year for DBS. We created significant value for shareholders on the back of our multi-year structural transformation. We also continued to deliver innovative solutions for our customers and made a positive impact on the communities we are in,” indicates the bank in its FY2024 annual report.

Among others, amid growing concerns of compressing interest income margins, the bank’s regional wealth management franchise extended multi-year outperformance. High-net-worth clients increasingly channel a bigger proportion of their investments in Asia. The bank’s total wealth management income rose 18% to $5.22 billion, while wealth management non-interest income climbed 45% to $2.60 billion, which outpaced many regional and global peers.

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In markets where it operates, DBS is ready to increase its stakes where it thinks it makes sense. For example, in 2024, it increased its stake in Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank (SRCB) from 16.69% to 19.4%, to gain a good footprint in the Greater Bay Area. 

Across the Straits of Taiwan, DBS is reaping customer synergies from the acquisition and subsequent integration of Citi’s consumer business in Taiwan. DBS singles out the wealth management segment to have a “standout year” as it successfully reached out to the larger combined customer base with a broader suite of products, driving income for Taiwan up 61% to a record $1.2 billion.

With the amalgamation of Lakshmi Vilas Bank with DBS’s existing India presence, the bank now has “a robust” full-service platform spanning institutional, wealth and retail banking. 

This means DBS can more fully participate in the growth of the fastest-growing major economy in the world. In India, income grew 25%, led by corporate banking, with SME and retail banking also seeing good traction.

See also: From momentum to transformation: Building a relevant stock market

All across, DBS is beefing up its support for companies’ supply chain diversification amid the ongoing trade war; it has launched new blockchain solutions for institutional customers, and it is levelling up its AI strategy so as to better serve our customers of all segments. To this end, DBS’s data analytics and AI and machine learning (ML) initiatives delivered over $750 million of economic value last year, more than double that in 2023. 

And for its happy shareholders, DBS has made bigger commitments to its capital management. On top of clearly guided and generous dividend payouts, DBS has set up new share buyback programme of $3 billion in which shares will be purchased in the open market and cancelled — a first for the bank.