MUMBAI: DBS, the Singapore headquartered bank, announced the formal launch of its Indian subsidiary — DBS Bank India — a week after it received Reserve Bank of India’s approval, becoming the second foreign bank to operate through the wholly owned subsidiary model, after the State Bank of Mauritius.
DBS, which plans to continue with the combination of digital platform as well as physical branches, said it would create 100 customer touch points across 25 cities in the next 12-18 months. This month, it plans to open nine new branches across major cities, and also five branches in unbanked rural centres.
“With DBIL, DBS will accelerate its growth plans, expand its operations and build greater scale in India through a ‘phygital’ model to further serve large corporates, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and individual customers. Unlike other banks who want to stick to the top-end of the market, we want to go deep. We are convinced that for any bank to be successful in long term in this country, it cannot be in the creamy layer,” said Piyush Gupta, DBS group chief executive.
The bank’s balance sheet has crossed Rs 50,000 crore mark in 2018 and it plans to triple this in next five years, said Surojit Shome, CEO, DBS Bank India. It also plans to expand its SME and retail business to around 30 per cent of the book both on the asset and liability side, Shome said. At present, only 10 per cent of the bank’s loans are in the retail segment with corporate loans making up the rest.
Capex
DBS had brought in I1,800 crore additional capital in 2018 and the bank would be spending around I125-150 crore for branch expansion.