DBS Group’s India-born CEO takes $4.1 million variable cut. Here’s why

Singapore’s biggest lender DBS Group Holdings Limited has said that its chief executive officer Piyush Gupta took a 30 per cent cut in variable pay which amounts to Singapore $4.1 million, Bloomberg reported.

The company in a statement said that the net profit had risen by two per cent to S$2.39 billion or USD 1.78 billion in the quarter ending December 31. The company said that the lender’s net profit had already exceeded S$10 billion, while it posted return on equity of 18 per cent. The company’s shares surged as much as 2.7 per cent.

In March 2023, the digital services of DBS Group suffered a ten-hour outage, termed ‘unacceptable’ by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). In a statement, the central bank had asked DBS Bank to conduct a thorough investigation to establish the root cause of the disruption and submit the findings before the MAS.

On October 14, DBS’s and Citibank’s online banking and payment services went offline from around 3 p.m. Singapore time with services only fully resuming on Sunday morning, Singapore broadcaster CNA reported.

ALSO READ: Apple CEO Tim Cook’s salary dropped by ₹300 crore in 2023. How much did he earn?

Who is Piyush Gupta?

Piyush Gupta has been the chief executive officer and director since 2009. Under Gupta’s leadership since November 2009, DBS has expanded operations in India, Taiwan, and mainland China through acquisitions and organic growth. He has also beefed up the bank’s wealth management business, which is now one of the largest in Asia in terms of assets under management, the report added.

An alumnus of St Stephen’s College in Delhi and Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad, Gupta was awarded the Public Service Star by the President of Singapore for his meritorious services to the nation in 2020, the DBS website stated.

He is a recipient of the 2023 Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, the highest honour conferred by the Indian Government on the country’s diaspora.

Gupta was named one of the world’s top 100 best-performing chief executives in Harvard Business Review – 2019 edition of “The CEO 100”.

(With Bloomberg inputs)