Tan Su Shan of DBS named world's best leader in private banking

Meet world's best private banking leader, right here
Accolade from Financial Times publications a first for Singapore
By Yasmine Yahya Assistant Money Editor, The Straits Times, 31 Oct 2014

IN A first for Singapore, a local banker has been named the world's best leader in private banking.

In her typical grounded style, DBS Bank group head of consumer banking and wealth management, Ms Tan Su Shan, said the accolade makes her very proud of her colleagues and what they have achieved at the bank.

The 47-year-old, who joined DBS in June 2010, led a transformation of its consumer banking and wealth management business. With the recent acquisition of Societe Generale's Asian private banking business, DBS has high net worth assets under management of $88 billion.

Where previously Singapore banks barely featured in a private banking landscape dominated by foreign giants, DBS now ranks among the top 10 players in Asia.

To Ms Tan, the award, presented by Financial Times Group publications PWM and The Banker, is a reflection of the hard work that her team has put into the effort. "They bought into the vision that we had of the wealth continuum, which is to start looking after clients from cradle to the next generation and move them up the wealth chain as we go along," she told The Straits Times in an interview yesterday.

Ms Tan began her career in banking as a fresh graduate of Oxford University in 1989, joining Barings Bank in London.

"They were looking for someone who spoke Chinese and Japanese and I qualified," she said.

She later moved to Barings' offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong and China, before joining Morgan Stanley and then Citi, where she crossed paths with DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta, then Citi's country manager for Singapore.

The mother of two, a 14-year-old son and a 15-year- old daughter, said the next big thing she is focusing on is the Societe Generale business.

"The SocGen acquisition takes us to the next level. Our new colleagues have come on board and they've taught us things we were not good at before, brought a global perspective to our business."

DBS also beat other banks from around the world yesterday to be named the best private bank in use of technology. Ms Tan said this shows Singapore has arrived in the big league.

She said: "Singapore has created a name for itself as a wealth management centre of choice, so why shouldn't a born and bred Singapore bank like DBS have a seat at the table in wealth leadership?"