SINGAPORE - DBS Group Holdings said the 2023 variable compensation for its chief executive officer Piyush Gupta and other members of the group management committee has been cut to hold them accountable for the series of digital disruptions in 2023.
Collectively, DBS’ management committee saw their 2023 variable compensation reduced by 21 per cent from the previous year, despite record profits for 2023. Mr Gupta took a deeper cut of 30 per cent, which amounted to $4.14 million, DBS said on Feb 7 in its fourth-quarter earnings statement.
However, to help lower-income staff cope with higher costs of living, junior employees – who make up half of the total headcount of about 40,000 employees – will receive a one-time bonus. A total of $15 million was set aside for this in expenses for 2023.
Junior staff here will get $1,000 each, Mr Gupta told The Straits Times. For employees outside Singapore, the one-time bonus will be indexed to the local market’s purchasing power parity.
Mr Gupta’s 2023 pay will be disclosed in the bank’s annual report, expected to be released in March. For 2022, he received $15.4 million, comprising a salary of $1.5 million, a cash bonus of $5.77 million and deferred remuneration in cash and shares of $8.04 million. A non-cash component – comprising club, car and driver benefits – worth $80,529 was also part of his pay package, according to the bank’s annual report.
Mr Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG, said the “heavy punishing move” of the pay cut may be well-received by investors as it highlights the management’s commitment to minimise future disruptions.
Speaking at a Feb 7 media briefing on its results, Mr Gupta said that, to date, DBS has spent $25 million out of the $80 million committed to improving its technology and resilience.
The bank is working to better pre-empt disruptions to its services, provide customers with alternative channels for payments and account inquiries during disruptions, and shorten incident recovery time.
He said “good progress” has been made, with half of the improvement work completed as at end-January. He expects 90 per cent to be completed by the end of March. This includes the elimination of single points of failure for key services by decoupling servers for DBS PayLah! and mobile banking.
Mr Gupta also said DBS is in the final stages of appointing a chief information officer “very soon”. It has already hired a head of technology risk, along with beefing up other resources and infrastructure.
Going forward, the bank will continue with its investments to sustain efforts to provide reliable services to customers, he said.
As a result of the disruptions at DBS in 2023, the Monetary Authority of Singapore imposed a six-month pause on the bank’s non-essential information technology changes on Nov 1 to ensure the bank keeps a tight focus on restoring the resilience of its digital banking services.
During this time, DBS is not allowed to acquire new business ventures or reduce the size of its branch and ATM networks in Singapore.
DBS had said then that it would hold its senior management accountable for the lapses, with it being reflected in their compensation.
