DBS Group said on Wednesday that Tan Su Shan, the firm’s head of institutional banking, will succeed Chief Executive Piyush Gupta upon his retirement in March, making her the first female CEO of Singapore’s biggest bank.
Tan, who joined the bank in 2010, will serve as the deputy CEO till then, DBS said in a statement.
CEO Piyush Gupta retires on 28 March 2025, when the bank hosts its next annual general meeting.
The banking veteran spent her first three years in the firm building DBS’ wealth management and institutional banking businesses, which account for 90% of the company’s income.
Tan’s appointment will also make her the first internal candidate to succeed as CEO, DBS Chairman Peter Seah told reporters in an earnings briefing on Wednesday.
The recent appointment ends a long period of conjecture about who would take over from 64-year-old Gupta, a prominent figure in Asian banking who has been at the helm of DBS for 14 years.
Gupta has been instrumental in reshaping the bank’s culture and upgrading its technology to meet the challenges posed by emerging digital banking competitors.
DBS shares have jumped nearly four-fold since November 2009 when Gupta joined the company, soaring 279% in value, while Singapore’s main stock index <.STI> has added 72.5%.
“Piyush is very big shoes to fill,” Tan said at the briefing.
With this appointment, Tan is set to become the second female leader of a major Singaporean bank, after Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp named Helen Wong as its head in 2021.
Meanwhile, DBS’ quarterly earnings surpassed analysts’ expectations on Wednesday, while the benefits of a booming wealth business that drove assets and fee income to records led the company to raise its full-year profit forecast.
Despite DBS achieving record profits in 2023 and beating fourth-quarter earnings expectations, the company in early February decided to reduce Gupta’s compensation by S$4.1 million ($3.1 million), penalising him for last year’s digital banking disruptions.
Reuters
