DBS chief Piyush Gupta to step down; Tan Su Shan to take the top job

SINGAPORE: DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta will step down from his position, Singapore’s largest bank said in a bourse filing on Wednesday (Aug 7).
He will be succeeded by Ms Tan Su Shan, who was appointed on the same day as deputy CEO, in addition to her current role as group head of institutional banking.
She will succeed Piyush Gupta as CEO when he retires at the next annual general meeting on Mar 28, 2025, the bank said.
“I am really deeply honoured and humbled by this … very grateful for this big opportunity,” said Ms Tan, who wore DBS colours at a media briefing on Wednesday. “I’m also very mindful that this is a huge responsibility.”
Her first internship as a university student was also at DBS. When she rejoined the bank, it felt like a homecoming, she said.
Ms Tan has been DBS’ group head of institutional banking since 2019. The 56-year-old has been credited with expanding DBS’ consumer banking and wealth management business, which she led after joining the bank in 2010. She had previously worked at Morgan Stanley and Citi.
Outside of DBS, Ms Tan served as a Nominated Member of Parliament from 2012 to 2014. She also sits on the advisory board of Dyson’s family office, Weybourne Holdings.
Ms Tan will be the first female chief executive in the history of DBS.
Between now and March next year, Ms Tan and Mr Gupta will work together to plan for the future and give Ms Tan exposure to more parts of the business.
“Everybody has told me Piyush has very big shoes to fill, and of course he does,” she said, adding that she was grateful for his mentorship over the years.
“But guess what? Our shoes are different. We wear different kinds of shoes, so our styles may be different, but some things will not change going forward,” she said, highlighting four Cs that matter to the bank – culture, customers, collaboration and continuity. 
Chairman of the board Peter Seah said that Ms Tan is a well-respected private banker who manages people well.
The board, together with an independent consultant, considered several candidates for the position of CEO, and Ms Tan stood out as the best, he said. 
The decision to appoint her was unanimous.
“She gets along very well with the rest of the team, and when the team members were informed of (the board’s) decision, it was well received,” Mr Seah added.
He noted that Ms Tan is the first homegrown person within the bank to succeed as the CEO of DBS.
“We are particularly pleased that our years of robust talent management (have) enabled us to produce (an) internal successor,” he said. Previous CEOs came from outside the bank.
Mr Gupta took the top position in DBS in 2009, joining the bank after 27 years at Citigroup.
He told reporters that he began to think about leaving DBS in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
“It gave me a chance to reflect on, you know, what to do with my life and the next phase of my life,” he said. In 2021, he told the board that he would like to retire at 65 years old.
“43 years of a banking career, 15 years of having run DBS, and it would be a great time to pass the baton,” he said. “I’m actually very grateful for the opportunity to have been able to lead this iconic institution and make a difference and fly the Singapore flag high over this period.”
He said that there would be “tremendous continuity” despite his retirement, noting that more than half of the board has “some runway” to go and will stick around.
The core management team has also been very stable, he said.
“The capacity of this team to provide, again, continuity, direction, stability is immense,” said Mr Gupta, adding that that is what makes DBS “a different kind of bank”.
During his tenure, DBS was recognised for its use of technology and named “World’s Best Bank” by publications such as Euromoney and Global Finance.
In 2019, DBS was also listed among the top 10 most transformative organisations of the decade by the Harvard Business Review.
Mr Gupta was awarded the Public Service Star by Singapore’s President in 2020.
But in recent years under Mr Gupta’s leadership, DBS has been plagued by multiple service disruptions, including a major one in October 2023. 
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) imposed penalties on DBS after the outage. It was not allowed to make non-essential IT changes or acquire new business ventures for six months.
It was also instructed to set aside more money as a buffer.
In February, Mr Gupta said the bank’s senior management team was taking responsibility for service disruptions by taking pay cuts.
He took a 30 per cent cut, amounting to S$4.14 million (US$3.12 million), in his variable pay. This resulted in his total compensation falling from S$15.4 million in 2022 to S$11.2 million last year.