Singapore-headquartered DBS Bank has launched its locally incorporated wholly owned subsidiary, DBS Bank India Limited (DBIL), on Monday, March 4.
Reports from Singapore noted that this marks a key milestone for the bank, which has had a presence in India for 25 years. In 1994, DBS set up a representative office in India, and opened its first bank branch in 1995.
Currently, DBS operates in 12 Indian cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Nashik, Surat, Kolhapur, Salem, Cuddalore and Moradabad.
The bank hopes to, through DBIL, accelerate its growth plans, expand its operations and build greater scale in India through a “phygital” model. The aim is to further serve large corporates, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and individual customers.
Over 100 customer touch points – a combination of branches and kiosks – will be established across 25 cities in the next 12-18 months.
Later this month, nine new DBIL branches branches will be opened, extending its reach to Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Vadodara, Indore and Ludhiana. It will also expand within cities where it is already present in, opening branches in Andheri in Mumbai, as well as Gurugram and Noida in the National Capital Region. Five branches will be opened unbanked rural centres.
“As an Asian bank, it is imperative that we take a long-term view of the region. We believe it is important to continue investing in Asia’s two biggest markets – China and India," said Piyush Gupta, Group CEO of DBS.
"In 2016, we launched digibank, a groundbreaking mobile-only offering, in India. We recently started piloting data-driven lending solutions for small and medium enterprises. The creation of a full-fledged subsidiary in India allows us to scale up further and bring to customers a more compelling proposition,” he added.