Asian financial services conglomerate, DBS, was named the World’s Best Bank for Corporate Responsibility and Asia’s Best Bank for Wealth Management at the Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2023.
This is the second consecutive year the bank has been honoured with the award of Asia’s Best Bank for Wealth Management and the first time a Singapore-based bank has won the World’s Best Bank for Corporate Responsibility category since its inception in 2014.
The bank credited its three-pronged approach to sustainability as the reason behind its win, involving responsible banking, responsible business practices and impact beyond banking.
“Being a responsible corporate citizen is a core tenet of who DBS is, with the group having embedded corporate responsibility principles in its group-level sustainability strategy,” Louise Bowman, Editor of Euromoney, said.
“In 2022, the bank continued to step up on efforts to give back to the community, with initiatives aimed at equipping the underserved with digital and financial literacy skills, and ensuring food security and resilience.”
DBS said it was committed to supporting the transition of customers to low carbon business models and improving their access to ESG investments, as well as partnering with them to integrate sustainable business practices into their strategies.
The bank has also published a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policy in 2022 to formally establish an equitable and inclusive workplace culture, and implemented an artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)-based digital career coach, iGrow, to help employees upskill or reskill to achieve any future aspirations or training.
In 2022, DBS dedicated an additional SGD$100 million in support of the DBS Foundation’s new Community Impact Chapter and other philanthropic initiatives.
“With the world facing burgeoning climate and biodiversity change and increasing social inequity challenges, the public, private and finance sectors have to step up efforts to address these issues,” Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS, said.
“DBS is no exception. From our inception as the Development Bank of Singapore, DBS has always been guided by a strong sense of purpose and doing what is right by society.
“Being recognised as World’s Best Bank for Corporate Responsibility testifies to the strides we have made and is great encouragement as we continue to do what we can to build a better world.”