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I see many people dissing it and it might be valid for their location. But DBS is in India as well. Compared to local banks, among which most are shitty in a w

I see many people dissing it and it might be valid for their location. But DBS is in India as well. Compared to local banks, among which most are shitty in a way that it feels they present “remaining shitty” as a non-negotiable goal to their tech team, and some foreign banks, some of those are shitty as well, DBS India’s app and Internet banking is really polished and functional. They bought a local bank recently so they have got a major physical presence push. I used to have bad experiences with their iOS app but since last 7-8 months it’s been really been good. I had complained around a year ago. 7-8 months back, an individual reached out on email thanking me for my feedback and saying they’ve done a major overhaul and they’d be glad to hear my feedback on it. This shit doesn’t happen with banks here. Be it private or govt banks, you’re lucky if you’re not treated like shit. They don’t spam (you’d not at all understand what it actually means if you don’t live in India!!!). One short email to my RM and even those rare marketing emails dropped to zero (one of them I had actually benefited from; another banking rarity here). PS: In last ~decade and a half I’ve tried too many banks and I keep ~10 bank accounts active at a time (due to insurance from Govt limit when banks fail; I know, I know)

korginator 5y ago
Glad to hear your positive experiences. Could I share your feedback with a few colleagues in DBS here? As you say, it's about context. Here we keep pushing the message that Singapore is an ideal place to do business, that the regulations are business-friendly, and the financial systems are efficient, well run and reliable, and this is largely true. A failure of this nature and size may be a blip in the Japanese or European markets, but it's also about perception. That takes a hit. It will affect the investment appetite, and our economy depends a lot on international business and money moving through our financial institutions. That's the first impact. More practically, and looking locally, about three-quarters of our GDP is in the services sector [1]. Pretty much everyone is banked, and payments are increasingly cashless. A lot of these payments (including salaries, payment for services like air-con repairs, etc.) go through our local equivalent of your UPI called PayNow, and DBS' PayNow systems were failing. I remember carrying cash in my wallet just a handful of times over the past couple of years, and I pay for pretty much everything electronically. So... these systems which failed are far more central to a well functioning economy here than in some other countries. That's the second impact. MAS (our regulator) is rightly concerned about the long-term implications. You can be sure they will have a thorough root-cause analysis. Some heads may roll. DBS will definitely be slapped with a multi-million dollar fine and be told to present a comprehensive plan to ensure this doesn't happen again. MAS will appoint people to oversee & manage how this is done, and knowing MAS they may start other audits to identify potential problems in other systems. They'll definitely be watching DBS closely, and they will probably look at other banks too. References: [1] https://www.singstat.gov.sg/modules/infographics/economy https://www.singstat.gov.sg/modules/infographics/economy

korginator 5y ago

Glad to hear your positive experiences. Could I share your feedback with a few colleagues in DBS here? As you say, it's about context. Here we keep pushing the message that Singapore is an ideal place to do business, that the regulations are business-friendly, and the financial systems are efficient, well run and reliable, and this is largely true. A failure of this nature and size may be a blip in the Japanese or European markets, but it's also about perception. That takes a hit. It will affect the investment appetite, and our economy depends a lot on international business and money moving through our financial institutions. That's the first impact. More practically, and looking locally, about three-quarters of our GDP is in the services sector [1]. Pretty much everyone is banked, and payments are increasingly cashless. A lot of these payments (including salaries, payment for services like air-con repairs, etc.) go through our local equivalent of your UPI called PayNow, and DBS' PayNow systems were failing. I remember carrying cash in my wallet just a handful of times over the past couple of years, and I pay for pretty much everything electronically. So... these systems which failed are far more central to a well functioning economy here than in some other countries. That's the second impact. MAS (our regulator) is rightly concerned about the long-term implications. You can be sure they will have a thorough root-cause analysis. Some heads may roll. DBS will definitely be slapped with a multi-million dollar fine and be told to present a comprehensive plan to ensure this doesn't happen again. MAS will appoint people to oversee & manage how this is done, and knowing MAS they may start other audits to identify potential problems in other systems. They'll definitely be watching DBS closely, and they will probably look at other banks too. References: [1] https://www.singstat.gov.sg/modules/infographics/economy https://www.singstat.gov.sg/modules/infographics/economy