DBS Bank’s Group Head of Institutional Banking reflects on the bank’s historic World’s Best Corporate Bank win, the shift toward more intentional supply chains, and how agentic AI is reshaping the way DBS serves corporate clients.
DBS Bank is the first bank from Southeast Asia to be named World’s Best Corporate Bank by Global Finance. Han Kwee Juan, Group Head of Institutional Banking, calls the award “a defining moment” for the bank. He sees it as recognition of DBS’s shift from a Singapore-centric corporate and institutional bank into a global partner that clients trust with their banking in Asia.
Han says many describe today’s supply chains as disrupted, but DBS sees something different among its clients: intentional supply chains. Companies are adopting local-for-local and region-for-region strategies to deal with trade challenges and tariffs. DBS responds by giving clients the flexibility to move across trade corridors while managing risk and liquidity. It also draws on its knowledge of Asian markets to help clients choose the right capital structure for each investment.
Technology is changing DBS in three ways, Han explains. First, a modernised tech stack enables instant payments and settlement. Second, agentic AI is transforming how the bank works internally. As an example, DBS has rolled out an agentic credit memo solution to all its relationship managers. With memos repared for them, it eaves RMs free to apply their own judgment and client knowledge. Third, DBS is preparing for an agentic world, ready to interact with clients’ own AI agents when they are ready.
Looking ahead, Han notes that liquidity is plentiful but under pressure. Hyperscalers and developed-market governments are drawing heavily on it to fund the AI and data infrastructure build-out, which makes it harder for other borrowers to access. DBS sees opportunity in new ways of raising funds for clients. That includes partnering with financial sponsors in private credit and private equity, and combining loans, syndication and capital markets with private players and insurers.