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Singapore-headquartered DBS Bank will later this year launch a completely digital platform for lending to small and medium enterprises (SME), it’s Chief Executive Officer Piyush Gupta said.
Like the bank’s mobile-only ‘Digibank’, India will be the first market where the digital SME platform will be launched, Gupta told a group of visiting mediaersons, a day before the ‘DBS Asian Insights Conference 2016’.
Gupta also said that DBS Bank was “bullish on India” and committed to continue growing its India franchise.
“Timing for our growth in India for the next five years is very propitious. We took credit pain in the last two years. From a competitive standpoint, we are better positioned as we have cleaned up our act,” Gupta said.
He also said that the entire DBS Board will meet in India in September, reaffirming the bank’s commitment to its “ India strategy and journey.”
DBS Bank — which has applied for a wholly-owned structure — will look to increase its branch network to 60 in the coming years from the current 12 if it were to get regulatory approval, Gupta noted.
Most of the expansion is likely to be focussed on enhancing SME lending, he added.
Bullish on Asia Gupta said that DBS Bank is still very bullish on Asia, given the strong fundamentals. “Demographics are going to propel Asia’s growth in the next few years. Asia is growing at 6.5 per cent, three-four times the growth rates of the US and European countries,” Gupta said.
(The writer is in Singapore at the invitation of DBS Bank)
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