DBS Bank India to scale up retail and SME loan book

September 05, 2022

DBS Bank India, which primarily focuses on corporate and institutional lending, plans to lend to retail and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) over the next five years.

“DBS Bank India is still largely an institutional bank, with 60-70 per cent of our total revenue coming from corporates, especially large ones. In the next five years, we expect the balance to become 40 per cent corporate and 60 per cent consumer banking and SMEs,” said Bharat Mani, executive director and head national distribution, DBS Bank.

DBS Bank India Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore headquartered DBS Bank Limited. In FY22, its total loan book stood at ₹43,898 crore, of which large corporates accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the exposure, while the balance was split equally among SMEs. and retail.

The bank is working on its products, geographic focus, pricing and customer segmentation to reverse the existing credit mix.

Mani said the incremental revenue for the next two years would continue to be driven by the corporate segment. “But, in the next 24-36 months, the revenue from consumer and SMEs will start taking their load,” he said.

In November 2020, the Reserve Bank of India allowed the amalgamation of Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) with DBS Bank India Limited. The amalgamation provided DBS Bank India with a strong foothold in South India, taking the total network to around 600 branches across 19 states. This provided DBS Bank India with a huge retail customer base with a strong Current and Savings Account (CASA) balance, apart from a wide range of products such as Gold Loans, Commercial Vehicle Financing and Education Loans.