Global wealth has long defaulted to Zurich and Wall Street. Today, however, the gravitational pull is moving to Singapore – and DBS Private Bank sits at the centre of that shift.
Given there are much larger global private banks in terms of assets under management (AUM), the allure of DBS Private Bank is down to much more than size and scale. It is about trust, resilience and relevance.
The dramatic rescue of Credit Suisse by UBS has shaken the foundations of Switzerland’s multi-trillion-dollar wealth industry. Meanwhile, trade frictions and the fracturing of global supply chains are pushing the world’s wealthiest families to seek shelter in the safest jurisdictions with the strongest platforms.
DBS’s contention as the world’s best private bank rests on a simple truth: the future of private banking belongs to the institutions that combine performance with resilience – and DBS has done so at a level few can match.
By end June 2025, the bank delivered S$23.3 billion ($18.2 billion) in net new money, 37% annualised growth in wealth-related fees, a stunning 72% return on equity and a 46% cost-income ratio – among the most efficient in developed markets. It doubled AUM in five years and added S$1.2 billion of fees between 2022-2024, achieving in half the time what had previously taken in six years.
Meanwhile, 40% of today’s private bank clients moved up the DBS wealth continuum, deepening the franchise with recurring engagement. “We have consistently outperformed our global peers across growth, returns, client flows, operational stability and innovation,” says Joseph Poon, group head of DBS Private Bank. “We have doubled our AUM in five years while delivering record income, consistently outpacing global competition through disciplined execution.”
Momentum is anchored in Asia but decisively global. DBS now serves clients from 120 markets, with significant inflows not only from China, India and Southeast Asia but increasingly from the US and Europe as families diversify booking centres and seek Asian opportunity with institutional safeguards.
Clients often ask two questions, what is your credit strength, and where is your jurisdiction’s? We answer both with confidence, AA-rated DBS and AAA-rated Singapore
Joseph Poon
The bank is also strengthening key corridors: it opened its first international wealth centre in Shanghai; it is doubling down in Dubai to capture flows from the Middle East, UK and Eastern Europe; and banks 40 of the top 100 Indian families. “We are steadily gaining wallet share as clients choose to book their global assets with us while accessing Asia’s growth opportunities,” says Poon.
The collapse of Credit Suisse has also prompted the world’s wealthy to increasingly focus on counterparty risk. And for DBS, safety is a strategy, not a slogan. DBS pairs an AA /Aa1 group credit with Singapore’s AAA jurisdiction; a CET1 ratio of 17.4%, a non-performing loan ratio of around 1%, and operational losses about four times lower than the industry average, which also earned it the title of the world’s safest bank.
Following the “Liberation day” volatility in early 2025, wealth flows doubled month on month, underscoring flight to quality dynamics. “Clients often ask two questions, what is your credit strength, and where is your jurisdiction’s? We answer both with confidence, AA-rated DBS and AAA-rated Singapore,” says Poon. “In an uncertain world, clients value a partner they can trust to exercise sound judgement and safeguard their wealth — that’s very important.”
In a world where counterparty strength has become the ultimate due diligence filter, DBS has emerged as the safest high performance home for global wealth.
Crypto holdings with us have now exceeded gold, a clear signal of client confidence and future readiness
Joseph Poon
For DBS Private Bank, delivery is just as important as products. Its “One Bank” model unifies private banking with corporate and investment banking, enabling an entrepreneurial client to address operating companies, holding structures and family wealth through a single platform.
“Our One Bank model works because … we have operationalised collaboration massively to deliver integrated solutions that go beyond private banking,” says Poon.
On advice and access, DBS’s chief investment office has not been afraid to lead. It was among the first to recommend a 60/40 allocation between public and private assets for ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) portfolios, while its Barbell approach (quality growth plus income) ranks among the top decile of peers since inception.
The team’s lucrative high-conviction calls – such as nuclear energy and gold – were translated swiftly into product and portfolio implementation. “We made non-consensus, bold calls – and we were right,” says Poon. Where other banks hesitate in uncertain markets, DBS turns insight into action – and action into performance.
Digital edge
AUM has since surpassed S$1 billion and is on track to double in 2026. The bank’s trustee business – one of the few remaining bank-owned platforms in the region – has grown fee revenue 66% since 2020, with about 600 private trusts administered. It is also the world’s first and only bank-backed trust to hold cryptocurrencies.
Digital and data are woven through the franchise. Since 2014, DBS has embedded AI at scale, with relationship manager co-pilots and hyper-personalised nudges improving engagement and speed to advice. The DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx) extends that edge to digital assets: in the first half of 2025, high and ultra-high-net worth clients traded more than S$3.1 billion in cryptocurrencies and crypto-linked instruments. DBS now offers crypto options and ETF-linked notes, alongside 100% air gapped cold storage custody and the integration of digital assets into legacy planning via DBS Trustee – a first in Singapore. “Crypto holdings with us have now exceeded gold, a clear signal of client confidence and future readiness,” notes Poon. DBS is not following the digital asset curve – it is shaping it with institutional discipline and private-bank precision.
Crucially, DBS’s digital push is matched by a safety-first tech posture: redundancy across data centres, human-in-the-loop recovery protocols, and leadership in anti-scam initiatives, all while tightening third-party risk management. Operational resilience during brief outages and rapid manual switchovers preserved client experience. This acts as a reminder that the most important offering in private banking is trust, and it accrues daily.
The 2026 Euromoney verdict matters because it rewards performance, design and trust across regions and cycles. A Singapore-anchored, AA-rated bank that has doubled AUM in five years, added S$1.2 billion in fees in three years, pioneered VCC-based multi-family office and institutional-grade digital asset capabilities, and maintained one of the industry’s safest balance sheets is a rare proposition. DBS is not simply Asia’s best private bank; it is the world’s safest high-performance platform for generational wealth.
