DBS India to set up over 100 branches, kiosks in next 1-2 years

DBS Bank, announcing the launch of its locally incorporated subsidiary, DBS Bank India (DBIL) on Monday, said that its wholly-owned Indian unit plans to establish more than 100 customer touchpoints - a mix of branches and kiosks - across 25 cities in the next 12 to 18 months.

This month, DBIL will open nine new branches and extend its reach to Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Vadodara, Indore and Ludhiana. In addition, it will 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. It will also open five branches in unbanked rural centres.

Piyush Gupta, Group CEO of DBS, said: "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.

"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."

DBS has been present in India for 25 years, having set up a representative office in India in 1994 and opened its first bank branch in 1995. It currently operates in 12 cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Nashik, Surat, Kolhapur, Salem, Cuddalore and Moradabad.

Since the launch of digibank by DBS nearly two years ago, the bank has acquired over 2.5 million digibank customers in India. In addition to savings accounts, digibank also offers unsecured loans and is the first to offer paperless onboarding for mutual fund investments from multiple fund houses.

DBS India was also the first to offer the choice of multiple life insurance providers based on an analytics-driven platform. For businesses, the bank launched a connected banking platform, integrating its e-banking solution with one of India's leading accounting and enterprise resource planning software platforms.

In 2016, DBS also set up its largest technology and operations hub outside Singapore in Hyderabad.