DBS plans to establish over 100 touchpoints
Hyderabad is becoming significant with 40,000 new clients, accounting for 30 per cent of the bank’s new customer base
Special Correspondent
HYDERABAD DBS Bank India, which had opened its first branch in Hyderabad earlier this year, plans to open an experience centre in Waverock - a hub for new generation companies that employ thousands of people - here.
With Hyderabad emerging as a key market, and the initial customer response being encouraging, the experience centre would help the bank enhance its engagement with prospective customers.
Head – Branch Banking & Wealth Management, Consumer Banking, India, Priyashis Das, said the plan is to expand its presence. “We will continue to invest where we believe the market provides an opportunity. Hyderabad has a great opportunity for us. In the last six months, we have got 40,000 clients from Hyderabad,” he said in a media interaction here on Thursday.
Customer base up
Elaborating on the significance of Hyderabad, he said the market has demonstrated strong growth, adding to over 30 per cent of the bank’s new customer base. It has also recorded the highest balances per customer, as compared to other geographies. “A quarter of our customers, on the wealth side, in Hyderabad, are NRIs,” Mr. Das said.
A release from DBS said the bank intends to establish over 100 customer touchpoints, through a combination of branches and e-kiosks, across 25 cities in the next 12-18 months.
Raising headcount
For DBS, Hyderabad is also significant as the city is playing host to the Group’s technology hub – DBS Asia Hub 2 - since 2016. It is the group’s largest technology and operations hub outside Singapore and employs more than 1,900 software engineers and developers.
Sources in DBS said including vendor partners, at present the number is around 2,500. DBS has taken additional space that can accommodate around 1,200 people and expects it to be filled up by next year. Most of the new recruits will be engineers, coders and developers, a source said.