DBS Achieves "Singapore Quality Class" Award For Its Entire Processing & Servicing Operations

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Award is an independent affirmation of the Bank's effort towards Business and Quality Excellence

SINGAPORE, June 2, 2003 - DBS Bank announced today that its Processing and Servicing (P&S) Division has successfully achieved the "Singapore Quality Class" (SQC) certification award by SPRING Singapore. This makes DBS one of the first organizations in Singapore to have its entire Processing and Servicing operations certified.

The SQC scheme serves to accord recognition to organizations that have attained a commendable level of performance in their journey towards business excellence. Based on widely accepted international models, the SQC Business Excellence Framework has seven dimensions - Leadership, Planning, Information, People, Customers and Results. Scoring well against this framework is an affirmation that DBS' P&S Division has an established and excellent management information system and efficient operational capabilities.

The SQC certification process for DBS P&S Division was initiated as part of an on-going effort to accelerate the implementation of quality excellence in its business processes.

Jackson Tai, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, DBS Group Holdings, said, "The SQC certification is an independent re-affirmation of our efforts towards achieving business excellence and sustaining our competitive advantage through the use of quality. Attaining this certification shows that we have met the exacting standards and processes of SPRING Singapore and demonstrates our commitment to delivering superior service to our customers."

Head of DBS P&S Division, Rajan Raju, added, "Quality is core to what we do within the Bank and we have come a long way since we started our quality journey over three years ago. Most of our major processes are ISO certified, our Contact Centre has been awarded the prestigious People Developer Award and all our operating departments are actively engaged in measuring our performance against our customers' requirements through our Six Sigma metrics. Embarking on the SQC journey is a natural step for us to validate our program for business excellence. This certification marks a significant milestone. We will continue to improve ourselves for the benefit of our customers, shareholders and employees."

The P&S Division covers all the operation areas of DBS Bank including Payment Services, Trade Services, Custody Services, CPF Operations, Unit Trust Operations, Credit Operations, Channel Management, Account Services, Contact Centre, Treasury and Markets Operations, Private Banking Operations and Credit Administration Services.

About Singapore Quality Class

The Singapore Quality Class (SQC) Programme provides organisations with a framework for achieving business excellence. The SQC Business Excellence Framework provides an excellence model that can be applied to any organisation, regardless of its uniqueness. It enables organisations to adopt a total approach in managing people, processes and customers to achieve better business results.

This programme offers organisations a specially developed tool for assessing their business excellence. This tool helps identify the special strengths and key areas for improvement. Participating organisations receive a feedback report validated by SPRING to help them in the journey of excellence and sustain competitiveness.

About DBS

DBS Bank is the largest bank in Singapore as measured by assets, with dominant positions in consumer banking, treasury and markets, securities brokerage, Singapore dollar loans, deposits, and equity and debt fund raising. With the receipt of executive and legislative approval for the merger of its wholly-owned Dao Heng Bank and DBS Kwong On Bank operations in Hong Kong, DBS Bank is now the fourth largest banking group in Hong Kong. Beyond the anchor markets of Singapore and Hong Kong, DBS Bank serves corporate, institutional and retail customers through its operations in Thailand, The Philippines, and Indonesia. The bank's credit ratings are amongst the highest in the Asia-Pacific region. More information about DBS Group Holdings and DBS Bank can be obtained from our website www.dbs.com.