DBS CEO Piyush Gupta is set to take a 30% pay cut following a series of significant outages that affected the bank’s payments and ATM services last year.
While Gupta experienced the largest reduction in compensation, other members of the bank’s management committee saw their pay decreased by 21% compared to the previous year, despite the bank reporting record profits.
In May, Singapore’s central bank implemented additional capital requirements for DBS after widespread outages in March and subsequent service disruptions two months later. The bank faced further scrutiny in November due to a data center failure that impacted online and payment services.
An independent investigation into the March 2023 downtime revealed weaknesses in areas such as system resilience, incident management, and technology risk governance, leading to a six-month suspension of non-essential IT services.
In 2022, Gupta’s total compensation amounted to $15.4 million, which included a $1.5 million salary, a cash bonus of $5.77 million, and deferred remuneration in cash and shares totaling $8.04 million. His pay package also encompassed non-cash benefits valued at $80,529.
This year’s 30% cut translates to a reduction of $4.14 million, as indicated in the bank’s earnings report.
In response to these issues, DBS has committed SG$80 million to enhance its technology and resilience initiatives. The bank aims to proactively prevent future service disruptions, offer alternative channels for payments and inquiries during outages, and reduce recovery times. DBS will continue to invest in reliable services for its customers moving forward.