DBS chief executive officer Piyush Gupta took home S$4.14 million less in 2023 due to the digital disruptions experienced by the bank's customers.

DBS made the announcement on Feb. 7 as part of its quarterly earnings statement, which also revealed that other group management committee members took a 21 per cent reduction in their variable pay as a whole, while Gupta took a 30 per cent cut.

The pay cut comes despite record profits for 2023.

Gupta’s 2022 pay was S$15.4 million.

It consisted of a salary of S$1.5 million, a cash bonus of S$5.77 million and deferred remuneration in cash and shares worth S$8.04 million, according to The Straits Times.

His salary also had a non-cash component that came up to S$80,529, which comprised club, car and driver benefits.

Junior employees who are lower-income staff in DBS Group, and who make up half of its total headcount, will receive a one-time bonus though.

Mothership understands from DBS that junior employees in Singapore will receive a one-time bonus of S$1,000 each to cope with higher costs of living, while for employees outside of Singapore, the amount will be indexed to the local market’s purchasing power parity.

The amount set aside for this bonus came up to S$15 million for 2023.

Gupta's latest salary will be disclosed in the annual report to be published in March.

Background

DBS, which is Singapore's largest consumer bank and Southeast Asia's biggest bank, suffered a series of disruptions to its digital banking services in 2023.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) barred DBS from any acquisitions of new business ventures and imposed a pause on non-essential IT changes for six months on Nov. 1 in response.

DBS was also not allowed to reduce the size of its branch and ATM networks in Singapore.

In its Feb. 7 announcement, the bank said it made a “whole-of-bank” effort and committed S$80 million to improving the reliability of its services.

DBS also proposed a final dividend of 54 cents per share, up 6 cents, and 1-for-10 bonus issue.

This brought its annualised dividend per share going forward to S$2.16.

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Top photo via DBS's YouTube