New Delhi February 21, 2014:- DBS Bank announced today that it has established a SGD 50 million foundation to strengthen its corporate social responsibility efforts in Singapore and across Asia. The initiative is being launched in conjunction with Singapore50 (SG50), to mark Singapore’s 50th year of independence next year, and funds towards DBS’ India efforts shall also be managed by the DBS Foundation.
With the launch of DBS Foundation, the bank will scale up its support for communities in Asia, and make an even greater impact in addressing the region’s evolving social needs. While the foundation’s objectives are expected to evolve over time, in the foreseeable future, it intends to catalyse social innovation by encouraging the development of innovative social initiatives. These initiatives include nurturing the social entrepreneurship sector and providing relief and support to communities in need, including donations in times of natural disasters or crises.
The establishment of the foundation underlines DBS’ commitment of giving back to the community in a sustained manner over the long term. Since 2012, the bank has provided close to SGD 2 million in grants to 56 social enterprises in Asia. DBS Bank India in association with Tata Institute of Social Science supports 22 social entrepreneurs across India from locations such as Surat, Navi Mumbai, Nagpur and across Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. DBS and TISS have been working together and have provided start-ups with funding, growth capital for capacity building/expanding, business guidance and mentoring support on various topics like HR, Finance and Marketing through staff volunteers. TISS and DBS have also measured social impact and created by these ventures.
The bank has been active in supporting social enterprises because they resolve social issues through financially viable solutions, enabling them to sustain their efforts over the long term. DBS also remains the only bank to offer virtually free banking services to social enterprises in multiple countries such as India, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia and Taiwan.
To encourage young people to do more for the community, DBS recently partnered the National University of Singapore (NUS) to launch an inaugural competition that will identify new ventures that have the potential to generate scalable and sustainable social impact. Launched in September 2013, the DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia has attracted over 400 submissions from over 15 countries around the world. Of the participants, 70% are younger than 30 years old, and close to 40% are women. The bulk of ideas centre on the use of technology to create social impact. The winners – who will be made known in June 2014 – will receive funding to start their social ventures.
“Over the past two decades, Asia’s rapid economic growth and development have led to an improvement of living standards across the region. However, a sizable proportion of Asia’s population has yet to benefit from the region’s rise to prosperity,” said DBS CEO Mr. Piyush Gupta.
“At DBS, we are of the view that we share a symbiotic relationship with the societies and communities which we operate in. We believe in being a force for good. Apart from creating long-term economic value, we also seek to positively benefit the communities we are present in, and deliver social value. The DBS Foundation will enable us to be a further catalyst of change.”
“We are committed to building a better future by supporting social enterprises in India and across Asia. Social enterprises offer innovative and sustainable solutions to meet societal needs. As a strong advocate of entrepreneurship and innovation, DBS is committed to help social enterprises maximise their social impact and improve their commercial viability at the same time.” said Mr. Sanjiv Bhasin, General Manager & CEO, DBS Bank, India.
On the crisis relief front, DBS has, in recent years, donated towards relief efforts for the Sichuan and Padang earthquakes, as well as Cyclone Nargis. Just last year, the bank, its employees and customers donated over SGD 1 million to the Singapore Red Cross in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
The DBS Foundation is chaired by Ms Euleen Goh, who is a Board Member of DBS Group Holdings and the non-executive chairman of the Singapore International Foundation.
Other board members of the DBS Foundation include:
- Nihal Kaviratne CBE, Board Member of DBS Group Holdings
- Danny Teoh, Board Member of DBS Group Holdings
- Karen Ngui, Head of Group Strategic Marketing & Communications, DBS Bank
- Lim Chu Chong, Head of SME Banking, DBS Bank
Said Euleen Goh, Chairman of the DBS Foundation, “In this era of ‘New Capitalism’, we must deliver value to all our stakeholders. This means doing what’s right by our customers, employees and the community as well as our shareholders. With a sense of shared purpose and meaning, not only will our people be more engaged, as an organisation, we can also make a greater impact in the communities we operate in.”
