In a year of geopolitical uncertainty, market volatility and falling rates, DBS leveraged its unique combination of cutting-edge innovation, organisational agility and dependability to support its clients.
Helping customers navigate 2025’s turbulence while delivering record performance for shareholders, its performance reflects the consistency of a model built on efficiency, technology and customer-centric execution.
DBS delivered record total income of SGD22.9 billion ($17.7 billion) and record pre-tax profit, while maintaining a return on equity of 16.2% within its target range. At the same time, record fee income underscored the growing contribution of client-driven businesses, highlighting the strength of its core franchises in retail, wealth and corporate banking.
“We delivered through a perfect storm last year, supported by our multi-year structural transformation, growth in high-ROE businesses and a diversified franchise across Asia,” says CEO Tan Su Shan. “This enabled us to generate strong returns despite a difficult operating environment, while supporting our clients’ resilience and growth. At the same time, we continue to invest ahead of the curve in our platforms and capabilities to ensure we remain relevant to our clients and deliver sustainable performance over the long term.”
Central to these outcomes is DBS’s long-standing commitment to digital transformation, which in 2025 entered a new phase with the scaling of artificial intelligence across the bank. The deployment of more than 2,000 AI models across hundreds of use cases has driven measurable improvements in productivity, risk management and customer experience.
As we look ahead, we want to be a dependable, diversified, disruptor and digital bank – an AI-enabled bank with a heart
This is not innovation at the margins but a reconfiguration of how the bank operates, enabling faster, more intuitive and more personalised engagement with customers across Asean.
Through this technology leadership, DBS has elevated its One Bank model. Integration is structural, supported by shared data architecture and AI, allowing the bank to build a unified view of each client regardless of entry point.
Relationship managers across corporate banking and wealth draw on the same data-driven insights to anticipate needs and deliver coordinated solutions spanning lending, transaction banking and wealth. AI plays a critical enabling role, linking client activity across products and geographies to create timely, personalised engagement rather than reactive servicing.
The next technology frontier
For retail and wealth customers, DBS’s focus on customer experience is a defining feature, as is the unmatched level of detail DBS teams go into to improve in this area.
The result is best-in-class, simplified and digitally integrated financial journeys, offering seamless access to payments, investments and financial planning. Initiatives such as digiWealth exemplify how the bank combines advice, products and digital access within a single ecosystem, enabling customers to manage their finances more holistically. These efforts have strengthened engagement and satisfaction, reinforcing DBS’s leadership in customer experience across the region.
In corporate banking, DBS has applied the same principles of integration and digital enablement to support clients operating in a more fragmented and uncertain environment. By combining transaction banking, lending and treasury solutions within a robust digital infrastructure, the bank has helped corporates manage liquidity, optimise working capital and navigate shifting trade dynamics across Asean. Its role as a trusted operating bank is rooted not in product breadth alone but in the reliability, efficiency and connectivity of its platform.
Looking ahead, DBS continues to pioneer new technology such as digital assets and tokenised finance while maintaining a strong emphasis on trust, governance and customer protection. The next technology frontier for DBS, agentic AI, is one it already crossed in 2025. As capabilities mature, agentic AI has the potential to fundamentally reshape how banking operations are executed and how customers are served.
Tan says: “As we look ahead, we want to be a dependable, diversified, disruptor and digital bank – an AI-enabled bank with a heart – underpinned by a strong culture of trust, being data-driven and a culture that embeds our pride values of being a purposeful and innovative bank.”
The past year demonstrated many of DBS’s core strengths, including its ability to translate strategy into consistent, high-quality outcomes. Its leadership, based on execution, combining operational efficiency, technological depth and a relentless focus on customer experience, continues to make it Asean’s most effective and forward-looking bank.
