Customs and Fees Uncertainty is “Cuttered” in 2025: DBS CEO

After Sterling 2024 booked record net profits by the largest bank in Singapore’s assets, DBS CEO Piyush Gupta said the banks were “risqué” amid unpredictable tariffs and financial policies from the US He said he needs to navigate 2025.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC’s JP ONG, Gupta said, “We are very aware of the fact that the Trump administration can use economic tools as (a) as weapons, so tariffs and tax policies could change.” I’ve said that.

Gupta’s comments come as Southeast Asia’s largest bank by the assets posted A solid display of year-round results, Net profits reach record highs.

For the fiscal year ended December 31, banks increased their full-year net income by 11% to $11.4 billion ($8.4 billion), and revenue increased by 10% to SG 22.3 billion.

Gupta described the performance as “great,” adding that he was “very pleased with the range of performance.”

DBS attributed the increase to several factors Record-high revenues and Treasury customer sales reach new highs. The bank’s net interest income is the interest that banks earn from loans they pay for deposits, up 5% year-on-year to $15.04 billion.

DBS stocks surged to a record high of $46.5 following the results.

Additionally, DBS expects net interest income for 2025 to be higher than the 2024 level, as expectations for interest rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve have declined.

“The impact of interest rates is diverse, so interest income is always difficult to predict,” Gupta said, and DBS originally predicted four interest rate cuts by the Fed in 2025. I reduced that prediction Two cuts to revenue reports released on Monday.

Following the stellar results, the bank proposed a final dividend of 60 cents per share in the fourth quarter. This is a six-cent increase from the previous payment.

This means that DBS total dividend for fiscal year 2024 was $2.22 per share, an increase of 27% year-on-year.

In addition to the regular dividends, DBS has announced a new “capital return” dividend of 15 cents per 15 shares per quarter of 2025 as part of its measures to manage excess capital.

“We expect to pay similar amounts over this mechanism or other mechanism over the next two years, except in unexpected circumstances.” Banks have been added.

Gupta said the bank’s capital adequacy is currently at 17%, exceeding the 13% that DBS said it is operating scope.

Capital validity is the ratio of capital that a bank reports as the percentage of risk-weighted credit exposures of a bank.

“Therefore, we have a lot of excess capital. We have promised our shareholders to return the excess shares of capital we have over time. Therefore, most shareholders have that excess. “He added.

The announcement of the results will be Gupta’s last as DBS CEO. He’ll be like that Handing out bank reins to Deputy CEO Tan Su-shan On March 28th, at the bank’s annual general meeting.

When asked about his plans at Southeast Asia’s largest bank 15 years later, Gupta refused to reveal details, but told CNBC, “I’ll take a deep breath, give me three or four months and give him some time to cool down, Then we take it from there.”