DBS “destroys trust” with Union

Labour chief Lim Swee Say disappointed with DBS’ sudden retrenchments

Signs of discontent at the highest level! Apparently, unlike normal industry practice, DBS had not consulted with DBS Staff Union on other alternatives to cutting costs.

He added that this has weakened the trust between the management and union and that “trust takes a long time to build, but a short time to destroy.”

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Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: DBS, Layoffs, Retail Banking

DBS tightens controls over sales “tactics”

DBS just can’t seem to get out of the headlines. While it was left to the new chairman Richard Stanley to announce DBS’ largest retrenchment in history, the white knight comes to the fore in the form of DBS Chairman Koh Boon Hwee. He describes his areas of focus:

1. Highly detailed and “intrusive” investor questionaires detailing sources of income and funds, not unlike Accredited Questionaires used in the US.

2. Make clear customer’s responsibility to read the investment details

3. Introducing a cooling off period for investment decisions

4. More training for sales folks

For bankers it means a longer sales lead time for closure. For sales management – a discussion about sales capacity and run rate will throw incentive systems into chaos.

What’s also clearly lacking is controls in the back office – product managers, wealth management marketing and business leaders- what safeguards are put in place to ensure that they too are better trained and experienced ?

This translates into new risk and compliance processes, and possibly tighter legal supervision on marketing collateral and advertising to ensure that customers are clear what they are getting into.

That’s a lot of work. Especially for a bank intending to cut 6% of its workforce.

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Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: Branch banking, DBS, Priority/Privilege banking, Retail Banking, Wealth management

SM Goh: warns against knee jerk reactions

Who else but our very own SM Goh  to calm things down a bit

SM Goh warns against over-regulation of financial system
By Channel NewsAsia’s Hong Kong Bureau Chief Roland Lim | Posted: 12 November 2008 0046 hrs

HONG KONG: Singapore’s Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has warned against over-regulation of the financial system in light of the recent meltdown on Wall Street.

He said the system must be flexible to allow ingenuity in creating new products, but agreed that more mechanisms need to be put in place to protect investors.

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Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: Uncategorized

DBS mis-selling saga: Bad timing, greed or inexperience ?

Was DBS innocent or even naieve in the recent mis-selling saga?

Reporter Loh Chee Kong from a local newspaper provides his analysis:

SINGAPORE: How did DBS Bank ever get itself into such a mess?

Summary:

• About 2,400 people who bought High Notes from DBS are affected; many are first-time investors which current rules and regulations are supposed to protect
• At that time who would have thought that the darling of Wall Street, Lehman Brothers, one of the oldest names in banking, could go under ?
• Did DBS succumb to the pressures of delivering quarterly profits, and reached into their huge dormant base with unfair tactics ? According to customer and industry sources, DBS grew their sales team was one of the most “aggressive” at the time Lehman-linked products came on to the market.
• Finally he asks if there is confusion over what DBS stands for – a listed corporation or a government savings bank. In other words, does DBS have a fiduciary duty to the public
  

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Editorial note:
Industry insiders say that the chain or responsibility goes deeper – to business managers, product managers and even sales and marketing managers.  Also there is a dearth of experienced personnel to feed the surge in banking growth in the region, resulting in weak bench strength both on the sales and business planning part.

Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: Branch banking, DBS, Retail Banking, Wealth management

Could DBS’s retrenchment been avoided ?

Reporter Conrad Raj asks some good questions about the big DBS Announcement in an article on Channelnewsasia.

For the second time in less than a decade DBS Holdings, the listed parent of DBS Bank and the island’s largest financial institution, has announced plans to reduce its staff strength – this time by more than 900 people, or 6 per cent of its total workforce.

He makes the following observations of the DBS mass layoff:

• Previous layoffs was because of banks merging, however this is due to sliding profit outlook
• The move appears to have taken the staff by surprise
• The bank is still profitable and unlikely to plunge in the final quarter.
• Unlike the previous retrenchment exercise, this time it affects personnel both in Singapore and Hong Kong.

The goal of the exercise:

• Chief executive Richard Stanley :“To be a streamlined organisation, I believe we must run a tighter ship.”

Questions posed:

• Why are cuts still made when costs for the bank has been reported to have been reducing
• Did DBS look at all other measures before deciding to take the present drastic action given that its still profitable
• Is this simply a “quick fix” to the bottom line ?
• Who to be laid off ? Non-performers or underperformers ? Or leaders responsible for the Lehman Brothers Mini Bonds and DBS High Notes debacle that cost them S$70 million ?
• Why hire so many in the first place ?

Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: retrenchment, Uncategorized