Get the house in order first, DBS
by admin , July 7, 2010, 1700hrs
By Loh Chee Kong
cheekong@corporateobserver.com.sg
DBS CEO Piyush Gupta could be forgiven for hopping mad after the banking services breakdown fiasco.
After all, the third person to occupy the DBS hotseat in as many years had been quick to stamp his mark – under a PR blitz, no less – fronting numerous new announcements and initiatives by Southeast Asia’s largest bank, presumably, in a bid to raise the bank’s profile regionally.
Nine months into the job, Mr Gupta, who took the reins last November, has so far overseen a move to expand DBS’ self-service banking network; a major divestment in India; appointment of a new private banking chief; a repositioning of POSBank business and the re-establishment of its project finance business.
But someone probably forgot to tell Mr Gupta that in a restaurant, it doesn’t matter how fanciful and varied its menu is – what matters most is the kitchen. Not that Mr Gupta, who carries a reputation of being an “operations guy”, needs reminding.
Either way, the message would have hit home on Monday – following the embarrassing fiasco when DBS’ automated teller machines (ATMs) as well as its Internet and mobile banking services broke down for at least seven hours.
In the aftermath, DBS is left counting its losses: damage to the reputations of not just the bank but of Singapore as a financial centre; loss in revenue from transaction fees; and possible financial penalties by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The fact that DBS failed to apologise at the earliest instance – in its initial public statement, the bank said it “deeply regret” the incident – left a sour taste in the mouth. It has since apologised via a newly set-up Twitter account, followed up by another apology by Mr Gupta.
At first, Mr Gupta also appeared to be shifting the blame to IT vendor IBM, as he said the bank outsourced all its hardware. He later told the Business Times that DBS takes responsibility for the incident.
Apart from getting to the bottom of the fiasco, reviewing its IT infrastructure, and providing a full explanation of what went wrong – beyond IBM’s vague explanation that the disruption was caused by a systems outage – DBS would have its work cut out to restore its reputation, one that has already been tainted by past episodes, including in 2004 when DBS customers’ safe deposit boxes in Hong Kong were mistakenly destroyed at a rubbish dump.
Three weeks ago, in media interviews, DBS chairman Peter Seah talked up DBS’ strategic road map to strengthen its Asian footprint, lending his weight to Mr Gupta’s vision for the bank.
The bank might want to consider getting its house in order first.
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