Gupta spoke after being asked for his view on the shelving of Ant Group Co.’s initial public offering in China as regulators seek to level competition between fintech giants and traditional banks.
“Our view has been in the past that many technology companies have been able to benefit from the arbitrage of not having the same regulatory regime and supervision overhead that banks do,” Gupta said. “And so as we get to that stage that’s actually helpful to us.”
While declining to comment on his plan to merge the bank’s India unit with struggling Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd. due to pending regulatory approval, Gupta said such a deal won’t impact DBS’s dividend payment. China, India and Indonesia are key regional markets the bank is expanding into, he said.
