Piyush Gupta, the CEO of DBS Bank informed during the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings call that the bank plan to launch crypto trading for retail investors this year. Gupta further stated that within the first half of this year, DBS will work on making digital assets easily accessible.

DBS Bank Ltd. is a Singaporean multinational banking and financial service company and is considered to be the largest bank in Southeast Asia by assets. Gupta said that the new services would be introduced by 2022.

During the fourth-quarter earnings call, Gupta answered the following questions:

• The CEO was asked whether DBS has any plans to expand its digital asset and the roadmap for rolling out digital asset trading for retail investors given the growth in that market.
• Gupta stated that the bank will initially focus on the first half of this year to make access to digital assets more convenient.
• Besides, he informed that despite the 24/7 service offered by banks, customers still feel the necessity to call customer care services and speak to bankers.
• Thus, the bank plans to make all these services online, self executive, and quick.
• These services would help in operating online deposits operate faster and more seamlessly with minimal intermediaries.

• Also, the bank would make sure that the internal processes are well equipped to support such processes.
• Gupta also stated that the bank has also started working and experimenting on various ways to explore and expand more than the accredited investor base in a sensible manner.
• These include the right approach and mechanism about suitability and gauging potential for fraud.

Notably, DBS has launched its cryptocurrency exchange DBS Digital exchange in December 2020 supported by SGX, Singapore’s largest derivatives, and asset exchange.