Expect more opportunities for capital returns, even after 1-for-10 bonus issue: DBS CEO

DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta expects that there will be more opportunities to return capital to shareholders, given the bank’s ample excess capital.

This was even as the bank has proposed to raise dividend payouts and issue bonus shares to increase the pace of capital returns to its shareholders, in its fourth-quarter results released on Wednesday (Feb 7).

Gupta said at a media briefing on the results: “We decided to go for a bonus issue just because it gives certainty into the future. It builds it into the base, and gives some confidence that this dividend will be there.”