MAS bans DBS from acquiring new ventures for six months

DBS Bank / Photo credit: DBS Bank

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has prohibited DBS Bank from acquiring new business ventures for six months. The move comes after repeated outages in DBS’ digital banking services this year, including one that occurred on October 14.

While the ban is in effect, DBS cannot make non-essential changes to its IT systems, except those related to security. In addition, the bank cannot reduce the size of its branch and ATM networks in Singapore, MAS said in a statement.

“DBS must put in place immediate measures to ensure service reliability while it continues to invest in the longer-term efforts to bolster its operational resilience,” said Ho Hern Shin, deputy managing director for financial supervision at MAS.

Since 2022, the regulator has imposed penalties of up to US$1.2 billion on DBS due to digital banking disruptions. However, MAS said it is “satisfied” with the bank’s remediation plan, noting that DBS will hold its senior management accountable for the lapses.

The MAS directive may also put a halt to DBS’ collaborations with Chinese fintech giant Ant Group and JP Morgan, according to sources who spoke to The Wall Street Journal.

At the end of the six-month period, MAS will review the progress of DBS’s improvement efforts. The regulator, however, may decide to extend the duration or take further actions.

In the meantime, MAS said DBS will need to apply a 1.8x multiplier to its risk-weighted assets for operational risk, which was imposed after the March and May 2023 incidents.

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