Singapore’s DBS Sets Sights on $774 Billion Wealth Business

The future of wealth management in Asia is increasingly being shaped in Singapore, where rising fortunes, geopolitical uncertainty and cross-border capital flows are fueling a fierce competition among banks for affluent clients.

DBS Group, Southeast Asia’s largest lender, says that it aims to grow assets under management in its wealth business to more than S$1 trillion, or about $774 billion, by 2030. The target reflects the bank’s confidence that Asia’s wealth boom still has years to run and that Singapore will remain a preferred destination for global capital.

The goal would add roughly S$400 billion in assets to the bank’s wealth platform over the next five years, matching the growth it achieved during the previous decade. DBS managed S$632 billion in wealth assets at the end of 2025.

“From full year 2015 to 2025, in 10 years, we grew our AUM by S$400 billion. Looking at the traction, our ambition now is to grow the same S$400 billion by half the time,” Shee Tse Koon, DBS’s group executive and group head of consumer banking and wealth management, said at a media briefing.

The bank’s bet comes as global financial institutions race to expand their wealth businesses across Asia, where the number of affluent households continues to rise. Wealth managers are also benefiting from a growing trend among wealthy families and entrepreneurs to move assets into financial centers viewed as politically stable and well regulated.

Singapore has emerged as one of the biggest winners of that shift. The city-state’s reputation as a safe haven has attracted a steady stream of capital from around the region, bolstering growth at its largest banks.

“Many of the macro trends that we see, for example the rise of wealth in Asia, and also the shift of wealth into Asia, I think these macro trends are what will be tailwinds,” Mr. Shee said.

The momentum is already evident. As of May, the number of newly onboarded high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients at DBS had risen 20 percent from a year earlier. The bank serves more than one-third of Singapore’s single-family offices, which have proliferated as wealthy individuals seek professional structures to manage their assets.

To support its expansion, DBS plans to hire more than 600 relationship managers, advisers and platform engineers by the end of 2028. Most of those hires will be concentrated in its key Asian markets, including Singapore, Hong Kong, mainland China, India, Indonesia and Taiwan.

“It’s not just about the frontliners. We need the engineers, the tech people, the platform people to create that capability and the capacity,” Mr. Shee said.

The hiring push reflects a broader transformation in private banking, where technology is becoming increasingly central to client acquisition and service. Banks are investing heavily in digital platforms, artificial intelligence and data tools to streamline onboarding, personalize investment advice and manage increasingly complex portfolios.

“Our wealth continuum is about really winning in every segment… it’s about serving them most appropriately in that segment, because as I said, customers are not homogeneous,” Mr. Shee said.

The expansion will not be limited to digital channels. Last month, DBS announced plans to open 18 new wealth centers across Asia by the end of 2027 and renovate 36 existing locations over the next 18 months. The initiative represents the largest physical expansion of the bank’s wealth franchise to date.

The strategy underscores how wealth management has become one of the most important growth engines for Asian banks. As lending margins face pressure and economic growth slows in some markets, banks are increasingly turning to fee-generating businesses tied to investment advisory services, portfolio management and estate planning.

For DBS, the challenge will be sustaining rapid growth while competing against global rivals that are making similar bets on Asia’s wealthy elite. Yet executives believe demographic and economic trends remain firmly in their favor.

The rise of private wealth across Asia, coupled with continued inflows into regional financial hubs, has created a market that many bankers view as one of the industry’s most attractive opportunities over the coming decade. For DBS, reaching S$1 trillion in wealth assets is the next milestone in that race.

Stay ahead of the stories shaping our world. Subscribe to Impact Newswire for timely, curated insights on global tech, business, and innovation all in one place.

Dive deeper into the future with the Cause Effect 4.0 Podcast, where we explore the ideas, trends, and technologies driving the global AI conversation.

Got a story to share? Pitch it to us at info@impactnews-wire.com and reach the right audience worldwide