John Olds decides to move on

John Olds sits in his office on the 45th floor of DBS Tower One, outlining what he hopes will be an ever-improving set of results for the largest of Singapore’s banks. Olds joined DBS as CEO in mid-1998, the First foreigner to run a Singapore bank. He has since been overseeing a complete overhaul of the bank’s business lines, transforming the institution from the last vestiges of its role as a traditional development bank lending at low margins, to one hoping to dominate at the retail and wholesale level, both in Singapore and Asia-wide.