---
endpoint: analytics
pattern: Financial Services
status: done
latency_ms: 152142
conversation_id: 5700cde0-9dc1-474b-9717-b2fb504389c8
citations: 9
created: 2026-05-31 19:29:16Z
---

# Who are the key customers and suppliers of DBS?

# DBS Group Holdings (D05.SI) — Key Customers and Suppliers

DBS is a universal commercial bank, so "customers" = the client segments it serves, and "suppliers" = the providers of its core inputs (funding, technology, talent). Below is a synthesis of CLSA's coverage of DBS and management's own description from the Q1 FY2026 results call (29-Apr-2026).

---

## 1. Customer Segments

DBS' franchise is organized around three customer pillars. CLSA frames the longer-term thesis as "DBS' longer-term positioning as an Asian wealth leader" with "structural growth in this high ROE business" [10].

### A. Consumer Banking & Wealth Management (CBG / WM)

The wealth management business — DBS' single highest-growth customer pool — is sub-segmented along the affluence continuum:

| Sub-segment | Description |
|---|---|
| **Treasures** | Affluent retail clients [3] |
| **Treasures Private Client (TPC)** | Mass-affluent / "upper" affluent [3] |
| **Private Bank** | High-net-worth and ultra-HNW [3] |

- Total Wealth Management AUM hit a record **SGD 492 billion** in Q1 FY2026, +17% YoY in constant currency, with **SGD 10 billion in net new money** in the quarter [3].
- DBS has been expanding the **onshore wealth footprint** by opening new wealth centres in **China, Hong Kong and Taiwan**, and refreshing the TPC offering in **Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan** [4].
- **Acquired Citi Consumer franchise in Taiwan** has been a key driver of customer acquisition — "the Citi franchise that we bought is turning out to be very good and the customers that we got, the staff that we got is turning out to be very good" [9].
- Retail customers contribute heavily to the **CASA deposit base** — "the increase was led by CASA inflows from both corporates and retail customers... CASA ratio improved to 55%" [7].

### B. Institutional Banking Group (IBG) — Corporate Clients

CEO Tan Su Shan describes IBG as growing where "structural growth" is — "particularly growing in… semiconductors, TMT, FIG" [5]. Key corporate customer verticals:

| Vertical | Key Customer Types |
|---|---|
| **TMT (Tech, Media, Telecom)** | Semiconductor ecosystem (notably Taiwan), data centres, AI healthcare, logistics, advanced manufacturing, robotics, EVs [1] |
| **FIG (Financial Institutions Group)** | Sovereign wealth funds, fund managers, banks, non-banks, insurance companies, and digital-asset players [1] |
| **Institutional Equities ("II coverage")** | Buy-side institutional investors — cash equity revenue +77% YoY in Q1 FY2026 [1] |
| **GTS (Global Transaction Services)** | Corporate cash management / payments — "GTS did a very good job on having a good momentum around new to bank customers and winning a lot more new cash mandates" [2] |
| **SME** | Small/mid-cap commercial loans (note: DBS has de-risked SME exposures in selected markets) |
| **Government / GLS** | Government land-sales-linked lending in Singapore and Hong Kong [8] |

### C. Geographic Customer Mix

| Market | Customer Profile |
|---|---|
| **Singapore** | Core market — retail, SME, large corporate, government [8] |
| **Hong Kong** | Wealth (Treasures + private bank), corporate, GLS-linked property lending [8] |
| **Taiwan** | Consumer banking + wealth (post-Citi); SME / mid-cap supply-chain clients [9] |
| **China** | Onshore wealth, TMT/semiconductor ecosystem corporates [4] |
| **India** | "Main book is to the large corporates, MNCs and the top corporates in India who are multinationals" [8] |
| **Indonesia** | TPC wealth refresh; corporate clients [4] |

---

## 2. Key Suppliers / Counterparties

For a bank, "suppliers" are the providers of its principal inputs — **funding (deposits / capital markets), technology, and talent**.

### A. Funding Suppliers (the bank's main "raw material")

| Funding Source | Role |
|---|---|
| **CASA depositors (corporate + retail)** | Largest, cheapest funding source — drove SGD 19 bn deposit growth in Q1 FY2026; CASA ratio 55% [7] |
| **Time-deposit holders** | Higher-cost funding tier |
| **Wholesale / interbank markets** | Used for short-term liquidity; subject to SORA / HIBOR / USD funding costs [7] |
| **Equity / capital markets investors** | DBS shareholders — supplied the CET1 base (16.9% transitional Q1 FY2026) |

### B. Technology and AI Suppliers

DBS is actively engaging the AI/tech vendor ecosystem:

- **Anthropic** — explicitly named in management Q&A; analysts asked whether DBS is in talks with Anthropic for access to its "Mythos" model after JPMorgan secured early access via "Project Glasswing" [6]. DBS has not confirmed an Anthropic deal but has flagged active dialogue with "platform companies, LLMs, frontier models, startups" during a board visit to Silicon Valley.
- **Frontier-model LLM vendors and AI startups** — broad sourcing relationship for generative-AI and agentic-AI use cases.
- **In-house AI stack** — DBS started in 2016 with deterministic/classical ML, expanded to GenAI in 2023, and now agentic AI; its data-lake build-out is internal.
- **MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore)** — regulator and risk-framework "supplier" for AI / cyber controls [6].

### C. Strategic Acquisitions as a "Customer Supplier"

- **Citi Consumer Taiwan acquisition** — supplied DBS with a ready book of affluent customers, relationship managers, and a cards franchise in Taiwan [9].

### D. Talent Pipeline

- **Local universities (Singapore)** — multi-year partnership programs for fresh-graduate hiring into the wealth-management RM bench (6–9-month embedded programs).
- **External RM hires** — DBS continues "to hire on all fronts" across Treasures, TPC, and Private Bank.
- **Internal continuum** — RMs progress retail → priority → TPC → private bank with their clients.

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## 3. Caveat / Context

CLSA's June 2025 "Wealth of returns" note (Marcus Liu / Daxin Lin) reiterates an **O-PF rating with a SGD 45.00 target**, framing DBS' structural wealth franchise as the offset to near-term rate and HIBOR headwinds [10]. The customer/supplier picture above is consistent with management's Q1 FY2026 commentary and CLSA's longer-term thesis: DBS' edge is increasingly in **fee-based, sticky, wealth + transaction-banking customer relationships** rather than in spread-based lending.

DBS does not publish a discrete "key customer concentration" or "key supplier" disclosure (typical of universal banks), so this synthesis is necessarily organized around segments and counterparties rather than individual named entities.

---

**Sources**
[1] DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Q1 2026 Earnings Call — IBG / TMT / FIG / II coverage segments (29-Apr-2026)
[2] DBS Q1 2026 Earnings Call — GTS new-to-bank customer momentum
[3] DBS Q1 2026 Earnings Call — Wealth Management (Treasures, TPC, Private Bank) AUM and net new money
[4] DBS Q1 2026 Earnings Call — Wealth-centre expansion in China, HK, Taiwan, Indonesia
[5] DBS Q1 2026 Earnings Call — IBG non-trade loans in semiconductors, TMT, FIG
[6] DBS Q1 2026 Earnings Call — Anthropic Mythos model / Project Glasswing / MAS
[7] DBS Q1 2026 Earnings Call — CASA inflows from corporates and retail customers
[8] DBS Q1 2026 Earnings Call — India corporate book and GLS lending
[9] DBS Q1 2026 Earnings Call — Citi Taiwan acquisition customer base
[10] DBS — O-PF (Wealth of returns) — CLSA (10 June 2025) — 607961689LinqAlpha.PDF

## Citations

- [1] **DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, 29-April-2026 11** · external
- [2] **DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, 29-April-2026 11** · external
- [3] **DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, 29-April-2026 11** · external
- [4] **DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, 29-April-2026 11** · external
- [5] **DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, 29-April-2026 11** · external
- [6] **DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, 29-April-2026 11** · external
- [7] **DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, 29-April-2026 11** · external
- [8] **DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, 29-April-2026 11** · external
- [9] **DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, 29-April-2026 11** · external

