The Singapore-headquartered bank is to use its recently-acquired licence in the UK to ramp up its wealth business operations in the country.

DBS intends to use a recently-acquired UK licence to quadruple the size of its small London wealth management operation, a move that implies an endorsement of the country in the wake of Brexit, a media report, later confirmed by the bank to this news service, said.

The Singapore-headquartered lender recently secured a securities licence and said it was now looking at adding staff in London as part of growth plans focused on the greater China market.

“It’s cheaper to get talent and set up base, and I believe in the long term prospects of London,” Tan Su Shan, head of wealth management at DBS, was quoted by the Financial Times as saying in an interview. “You can’t unwind the fact that it’s a great city,” she said. 

The London base, home to three relationship managers following last June’s Brexit vote, initially offered a global service for wealthy Asian clients, Tan was quoted as saying.

However, the bank is shifting to managing money in the UK and it intends to bring in three new RMs in London this year, doubling headcount again in 2018, the report said. It quoted Tan as saying that an attraction has been depreciation to sterling, making the UK more appealing to Asian investors.

DBS later confirmed the report to this publication, adding: "We are targeting a total headcount of six by this year, and hope to double by next year. They are reporting into Rob Ioannou, head of international at DBS Private Bank."

Such expansion also highlights how Singapore-based banks, facing some headwinds in their home region, such as from the Indonesia tax amnesty, have had to adjust, including seeking new markets further afield. Tan said in the FT interview that DBS, which has an onshore presence in Indonesia, has had to “raise its game” in that country. 

DBS has been one of the acquirers of private banking assets from European and other non-domestic players in Asia. Last year, it bought private banking assets from ANZ, and in 2014, agreed to buy Asian private banking operations of Societe Generale.

Among recent developments, DBS announced high-level changes to its digital banking operations. The lender's regional head of eBusiness, Sandeep Lal, was recently concurrently appointed as group head of digital bank. He will continue to report to Pearlyn Phau, deputy group head of consumer banking and wealth management. Lal joined DBS in 2008, and has more than 30 years of experience in the banking and digital payments space.