The digital reinvention of an Asian bank

DBS is one of the leading financial-services groups in Asia. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, the company has a growing presence across the region and aspires to be what it calls "the Asian Bank of choice for the new Asia". One of the most important prongs of that ambition is the bank's digital strategy - notably its determination to embrace technology, reimagine the customer journey, and make the bank's culture more entrepreneurial. McKinsey senior partner Joydeep Sengupta recently sat down with Piyush Gupta, the CEO of DBS since 2009, to discuss the challenges and opportunities Mr Gupta has encountered along the way and the future shape of banking, including the threat from platform companies.

The Quarterly: What led you to set out on a digital journey?

Mr Gupta: The experience of telcos, transport and retailing shows that we're changing the way we communicate, the way we commute, and the way we consume. So why would banking be immune or be safeguarded from any of this? Banking is arguably the most digitisable industry of all, so in some ways it's surprising that we haven't been more disrupted. I think part of that has to do with psychology - people think about money a little bit differently than they do about other things - and it's partly to do with regulatory barriers.