DBS Group Holdings Reviews

Pros

DBS is a bank on the rise. No doubt it has a lot of legacy issues to deal with but it is definitely on the right path to establishing itself as a significant player in the Asian market. The Bank's position in the Singaporean market in the areas of Treasury and Markets, Corporate Banking, and Capital Markets are unassailable. DBS is very strong in these areas and is performing very well. Furthermore, with the addition of Piyush as CEO who is an exceptional visionary and executor, DBS not only has a clear vision for the future but now has someone who can actually get it done. For people who are interested to work for DBS, the things you can look forward to are:
 - Strong universal banking capabilities in Asia thus allowing for a great number of opportunities an exposure assignments.
- Excellent working culture in the sense that people can be very nurturing and respectful
- A lot of leave (though the caveat is that you won't necessarily be able to use it all)
- Great senior management who are not only competent but personable and empathetic
- Constant flow of incoming deals

Cons

As I mentioned, legacy. The Bank has a laundry list of legacy issues to iron out which include dated IT systems, and redundant staff stemming from years of mismanagement. As such, things can take a while to get moving at times and paper work is never ending. Furthermore, compensation can leave a lot to be desired. Though it is the highest paying of all the local banks in Singapore, it still does not compare to some of the other foreign banks who not only have better pay but also superior benefits.

Advice to Senior Management

Stay the path and continue molding the organization into a lean and mean machine!

Pros

very friendly people, a lot of learning opportunites avaliable for junior staff members, supervisors who are interested in your career development

Cons

lack of career advancement opportunities, changes are relatively slow, the pay for more senior professionals are not competitive compared to market

Advice to Senior Management

Introduce a more competitive pay system and increase the innovation in the bank. The bank has a good strategy to start off with. Keep it up!

Pros

Friendly working environment. The hierarchy is quite flat and the superiors are approachable and do value your feedback and inputs.

Cons

Compensation could be more competitive, given its strategy to expand across Asia, more could be done to retain and recruit talent.

Advice to Senior Management

Do more to recruit and retain valuable talent, so as to compete with other larger and more established banks across Asia.

Pros

Broad exposure to many technologies and business processes in a Bank that is going places ion the next 5 years.

Cons

Lack of direction from senior management, vastly different cultures within different departments in IT makes collaboration very difficult. Deteriorating work life balance with crazy project timelines.

Advice to Senior Management

Look at senior management who can give direction and look for consistency across teams.

Pros

DBS is a reasonably good place to start one's career. Their development program is decent and provides one with decent exposure to various aspects of the banking business.

Cons

It is ultimately not a significant player on the world or even regional stage. If you want to take your career to the next level, you'll have to move somewhere bigger.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of some of the layers of middle management; we don't need so many people just monitoring the work instead of getting it done.

Pros

Hardwork pays off in DBS with extremely good promotion and recognition with top management including interviews with the ceo and team bonding exercises with leadership. Right place to be if you want due recognition and opportunity for fast track growth.

Cons

Fairly new in the wealth management market. DBS Bank Strategy is a bit confusing for general customer who may be looking for an all solutions provider or complete banking package. DBs needs to refocus on its core competencies to outline and postion itself on a significant market share.

Advice to Senior Management

Does DBS know who are they really competing against?? HSBC or HDFC/ICICI or Barclays or is it just in its own perfect world where competition is fair game?

Pros

People generally friendly
Easy to get in
Big organisation, so get exposed to many different things
Big brand name in Singapore

Cons

Poor people development
Even though senior management has good views/ideas, doesn't get down to middle management and below
Quite political and management seems to reward those who play politics

Advice to Senior Management

Good senior management, but the ideas/views need to pass down to middle management and below.
Need to manage and retain talent better

Pros

DBS offered the best Leave package and they do offer incentives and bonuses. Allowance is given for those shifting jobs, you can claim for taxi fares.

Cons

Very hard to get some documents at HR, PC are not cleaned in technical terms whereby needed to delete old files or defrag, causing it to be very slow. In the last 2 years, not an upgrade or pc clean was done to boost technical performance.

Advice to Senior Management

love the little people that makes up the company. They are the base, without them the company would collapse. These little people should be properly compensated by any means. Their concerns should be addressed too, just how you address bank clients.

Pros

The environment at DBS is very friendly. My colleagues are very helpful and teach me a lot of things. Overall, it is a very good learning experience.

Cons

No much to criticize or comment about. I guess the environment is quite relaxed. If you're look for a lot of challenges and very exciting life, it might not be a good place for you.

Advice to Senior Management

In terms of training, management should provide more to juniors, and provide international exposure to them as far as possible.

Pros

the brand name of the company

Cons

my boss was a slave driver who did not promote work life balance.
and my supervisor did not care if i could cope with my work load.
there was very little engagement.

Advice to Senior Management

more engagement and recognition for staff especially in operations which requires working on public holidays.