Mr Piyush Gupta, the DBS chief executive officer, had his variable pay cut by 30 per cent in 2023, as a result of the digital disruptions experienced by the bank’s customers.
This amounted to S$4.14 million (US$3.08 million), announced DBS on Wednesday (Feb 7) as part of its quarterly earnings statement. Collectively, the CEO and other members of the group management committee took a 21 per cent reduction in their variable pay.
“The Board determined that the variable compensation for the CEO and other members of the Group Management Committee should be cut to hold them accountable for the series of digital disruptions during the year,” DBS said.
Singapore’s largest lender suffered a series of disruptions to its digital banking services last year, culminating in the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) barring DBS from any acquisitions of new business ventures for six months.
DBS was also made to pause non-essential IT changes for six months and was not allowed to reduce the size of its branch and ATM networks in Singapore.
The bank maintained guidance for net interest income for 2024 at around last year’s levels after posting a 2 per cent rise in fourth quarter net profit, beating expectations.
“While interest rates are expected to soften and geopolitical tensions persist, our franchise strengths will put us in good stead to sustain our performance in the coming year,” Mr Gupta said in a statement.
DBS, which is also Southeast Asia’s biggest bank, proposed a final dividend of 54 cents per share and 1-for-10 bonus issue.
The NIM of 2.13 per cent during the quarter was up from 2.05 per cent a year earlier.
Full-year annual profit jumped 26 per cent to S$10.3 billion from S$8.19 billion in 2022. Return on equity climbed to a record high of 18 per cent from 15 per cent a year ago.
CNA
