DBS picks insider Tan Su Shan as first female CEO to lead Southeast Asia’s biggest bank

By Roushni Nair and Yantoultra Ngui

(Reuters) -DBS Group said on Wednesday Tan Su Shan, its head of institutional banking, will succeed Piyush Gupta as CEO when he retires in March, making her the first woman to lead Singapore’s and Southeast Asia’s biggest bank.

CEO Gupta retires on 28 March 2025, when the bank hosts its next annual general meeting. Tan, 56, who joined the bank in 2010 from Morgan Stanley, will serve as the deputy CEO until then, DBS said in a statement.

“We think the appointment signals continuity and stability,” said Thilan Wickramasinghe, Maybank Investment Banking Group’s head of research for Singapore and regional head of financials.

“She is an internal candidate who has played a sizable role in building the existing culture and business mix of DBS,” he added.

The banking veteran spent her first three years at the bank building its 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 appointment ends speculation 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.

Under Gupta, DBS expanded regionally with acquisitions in India and Taiwan, and in May became the first Singapore-listed company to achieve S$100 billion in market capitalisation.

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 has added 72.5%.

“Piyush is very big shoes to fill,” Tan said at the briefing.

Jefferies’ equity analysts Sam Wong and Shujin Chen said in a research note following the announcement that they “expect a modestly negative initial share price reaction” given Piyush’s strong track record at DBS.

Shares of DBS ended 2.8% higher at S$33.65 a share before the announcement, outperforming the local benchmark index’s 1.6% rise.

With this appointment, Tan, an Oxford University graduate, 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.

($1 = 1.3275 Singapore dollars)