After months of service disruptions, the Monetary Authority of Singapore required DBS Bank, the banking arm of Singapore’s largest lender, to raise more capital on Friday.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore stated that the bank’s digital banking and ATM services were disrupted on March 29 and May 5, respectively.
“Together with the additional capital requirement imposed on DBS in February 2022, this translates to approximately 1.6 billion Singaporean dollars ($1.21 billion) in total additional regulatory capital,” MAS said.
According to MAS, DBS now needs 1.8 times its risk-weighted assets for operational risk, up from 1.5 times in February 2022 after the November 2021 interruption.
It stated that MAS may adjust the multiplier after continuing reviews.
DBS said MAS’ new move will lower its March 31, 2023 common equity tier 1 capital ratio from 14.4% to 14.1%.
“Following the March 29 incident, the bank convened a special board Committee to oversee a full review of our technology resiliency with an independent external expert,” DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta said.
“We will complete the review as a priority and implement all recommendations expeditiously,” he added.
MAS said it ordered DBS to perform a complete examination in March to encompass the May event.
In the MAS statement, Ho Hern Shin, MAS’ Deputy Managing Director (Financial Supervision), called the public’s recurring discomfort intolerable.
“MAS takes this matter seriously,” she stated. “DBS Bank must work tirelessly to address the root causes of these disruptions.”