DBS to add bankers for Hong Kong, China corporate business

DBS Group Holdings, Southeast Asia’s biggest lender, will increase the number of bankers serving large companies in Hong Kong and China by 20 percent next year as it seeks more revenue from outside of Singapore.

The bank plans to add 10 to the 50-person team, Ginger Cheng, who heads DBS’s institutional banking for large companies in Hong Kong and China, told a briefing.

DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta is targeting faster-growing markets as corporate loan growth in Singapore slows. The bank derived 63 per cent of its net income from the Southeast Asian city in the third quarter, down from 66 per cent a year earlier, according to Bloomberg data.

“We are looking to hire mostly senior bankers as we expect strong funding demand needs by Chinese corporates,” said Cheng of DBS Bank (Hong Kong).

The bank next year will also set up a team to provide financing and cash management services to multinational companies in Europe and the US, she said.

In addition to the corporate banking expansion, DBS plans to sell more services to wealthy people in Hong Kong to increase consumer banking revenue in the city by at least 10 per cent a year, Pearlyn Phau, head of consumer banking for Hong Kong, said on November 2.