SINGAPORE: After almost 15 years at the head of Singapore’s largest provider, DBS CEO Piyush Gupta may leave his post.
DBS announced on , Wednesday ( Aug 7 ) that Mr Gupta will retire at the next , annual general meeting on Mar 28, 2025.
The company’s team head of organisational bank Tan Su Shan, 56, may succeed him.
Mr. Gupta, 64, was questioned about potential retirement this time during an analyst lecture in May.
” No, I am not retiring this time”, he responded at the time.  ,
CAREER BANKER
Mr. Gupta has just recently worked for two large businesses and three other businesses.
In 1982, he started his career in Citibank’s company in Kolkata, India, working in the back office as a director of administrative workers, according to an appointment with the New York Times in 2013.
By 2000, he had risen up the ranks to become the CEO of Citibank Indonesia.
When he made the leap of faith and founded his personal Go4i.com start-up.
He and the Hindustan Times, one of India’s largest magazines, joined forces at the top of the ecommerce bubbles.
Shortly, however, the bubble burst and Go4i.com folded.
In a chapter of his book Training For My Younger Self, he said,” I went through two months of a shake-up in my self-confidence. I was worried about what I wanted to do and what was going to happen in the future.”
He returned to Citi in 2001, where he became the CEO for South East Asia-Pacific, and was concerned for all of Citi’s company – financial markets, investment bank, wealth supervision and more – in those areas.
In 2009, he was appointed CEO by DBS. In a statement at the time, DBS said his “broad-based bank knowledge” positions him also to expand the brand, and added that he is known for being a “well-rounded head”.
Gupta is a seasoned Asia hands who has successfully led firms in difficult and positive times, according to the statement.
Mr. Gupta was born in India in 1960 and soon after taking over the position of DBS CEO, he became a member of Singapore.
AT THE HELM OF DBS
Prior to Mr. Gupta’s appointment, the best position at DBS was unoccupied for a short while.
His quick president, Mr Richard Stanley, died in April the same year from cancer.
This occurred as the world attempted to recover from the world’s economic crises in 2007 and 2008.
In an interview with the Business School at the National University of Singapore in 2015, he claimed that lenders were distracted and very focused on” the conflicts of yesterday” as a result of the issue.
” As a consequence, businesses have never thought enough about the battle of tomorrow. However, he claimed that the most banks CEOs have prioritized automation over the top priority in the last two years.
During his tenure, topics like cryptocurrency technology, online banking, and online payments emerged and gained popularity.  ,
For instance, electric pocket PayLah! was launched in 2014 and now has more than 2 million customers.
Both DBS and Mr Gupta received awards over the years, as a testament to his command.
In 2022, DBS received its fifth” World’s Best Bank” title from US-based publication Global Finance. It was also named” World’s Best Digital Bank” by Euromoney in 2018.
Mr Gupta was one of the country’s top 100 best-performing key executives in 2019, according to the Harvard Business Review. He was named Economic Times ‘ International Indian of the Year in 2021.
SERVICE Outages
However, his day at DBS was not always straightforward.
As early as 2010, the year after he became CEO, the Monetary Authority of Singapore ( MAS ) criticised the bank for a seven-hour system-wide outage, according to Finextra, a fintech news website based in London.
On July 5, that year, all customer and business banking services, ATMs, and points of sale transactions stopped, and MAS claimed the bank failed to implement a solid technology risk management framework.
In November 2021, online bank service suffered a two-day failure. MAS said it was a” major disruption”.  ,
Both days, MAS imposed an extra cash condition on the bank, though the number in 2021 was significantly larger.
After another day-long failure in March 2023, MAS said the disturbance was “unacceptable” and that the institution had fallen short of expectations.
Another upheaval that affected ATMs and online companies hit DBS in October of that same year. Additionally, Citibank service decreased.
2.5 million dollars in ATM and pay transactions were halted due to the failure.
DBS was instructed by MAS to delay all non-essential IT modifications for six months and to a six-month ban on new business ventures by the MAS in November.
Despite MAS’s announcement to not prolong the six-month delay in April, DBS must also set off additional regulatory money by applying a 1.8 % multiplier to its risk-weighted assets.