An Insight Into Finance - Featuring DBS Bank

Finance at a glance: The Singapore Market

Singapore has developed into a thriving financial centre that is highly regarded by key financial institutions and industry players as an ideal base to penetrate markets from.

Despite the recent economic crises, the market is expected to grow. There are now over 600 multinational financial institutions which contribute to more than 12% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Many financial institutions in Singapore are experiencing a shortage of suitably skilled talents to support their rapid growth, and require capable and driven individuals to join them, from fund managers, operations officers to investment bankers.

Facts and Figures:

The financial sector has been consistently growing over the past few years, and is expected to grow by 5.4% this year.

45 per cent of local accounting and finance firms plan to add new employees this year, and have no plans of reducing the headcount of their finance staff.

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Featured Company:

The bank was set up in June 1968 and today, its branches numbering more than 100 can be found island-wide. DBS Bank is the largest bank in South East Asia by assets and among the larger banks in Asia.

DBS uniquely delivers banking the Asian way. As a bank that specialises in Asia, they leverage their deep understanding of the region, culture and insights to serve and build lasting relationships with their clients. Click here to explore an enriching career with DBS Bank

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DBS Bank: Perspectives of a Finance SVP

Annie Lee, who joined DBS in 2011,manages the Group FinancialPlanning & Analyticsteam which supports the decision-making capabilities of DBS Group. Together with her team, Annie provides insights and analyses on business profitability. Other than that, they also lead the bank's budgeting and planning processes.

She derives a great sense of job satisfaction from seeing her team members advance both professionally and personally. This sense of giving back is witnessed in her role as the Training Principal for the Singapore Qualification Programme at DBS. In addition,Annie runs the finance team's learning and development.

When asked what interested her in the banking industry, Annie mentioned that completing an internship at a foreign bank inspired her in that direction. She recalled, "I realised that finance in the banking sector was completely different from what I had learnt in school.Finance in the banking sector is about understanding the impact of capital, regulations, different tax rules across regions, systems and applying accounting knowledge to the business landscape".

According to Annie, it is important to have both strong technical as well as interpersonal skills to succeed in this field. A good degree is the stepping stone to a career in banking, however surprisingly Annie also mentioned, "Finance in the banking sector is a melting pot of diverse talents, contrary to popular belief that accountancy degrees are a pre-requisite for joining Finance teams".

Members in the finance team come from economics, political science and financial engineering backgrounds among others.

"In the fast-paced and quickly evolving banking sector, change is the only constant," quipped Annie, who embraces this challenge with gusto. She is a great advocate of change and innovation that will bring benefits.

DBS Bank: Perspectives of an Employer

James Loo is the Senior Vice President of Human Resources at DBS Bank. He was candid about the main challenges facing the accounting/finance industry, namely the difficulty of attracting and retaining good performers. "Not just good performers," he admitted, "but those who are able to think strategically, and yet roll up their sleeves to perform the day-to-day BAU (Business As Usual) tasks and processes."

However, at DBS they manage to overcome this challenge, having won the Gallup Great Workplace Award for two years running, which recognises companies for their extraordinary ability to create an engaged workplace culture. DBS accomplished this by putting in place a range of programmes and policies that enable staff to drive their careers while managing their personal commitments."DBS believes that people are at the heart of banking,"said James.

This mantra is also represented in their initiatives to create a balanced work-life culture. The lights go off at 7pm from Monday to Thursday and at 5pm on Friday. This is to remind employees to spend time with their families or on other personal pursuits.

Furthermore, DBS believes in building their employees from the ground up. The DBS Academy was set up as an in-house school which creates training programmes for employees under a framework that aligns learning and development initiatives with business objectives. Structured training programmes are provided for middle andsenior management to ensure that they have ample career development opportunities to upgrade their skills and hone their competencies.

DBS also welcomesnew graduates to apply for their programmes which provide mentorship by supervisors, on-the-job training, and classroom interactions.

When asked what he looks for when hiring new candidates, James said, "At DBS, we hire candidates based on merit and fit. We are looking for candidates with a can-do attitude, an innovative mindset and who are prepared to be part of the action."