DBS upgrades Treasury and Market capabilities with SMU

Partnership to create corporate treasury course to bridge talent gap and make Singapore T&M learning hub.

DBS Bank said on Thursday it has enhanced its Treasury and Markets (T&M) capabilities to meet the increased need for quality advisory and financial solutions by corporate treasurers in Singapore. The bank is concurrently working with the Singapore Management University (SMU) to create a first-of-its-kind course that will help develop corporate treasury talent in a professional field that has grown in demand and sophistication over the years.

DBS’ two-pronged approach to enhancing partnership with the industry comes amid significant changes in the corporate treasury landscape here, according to a DBS report.

There has been a growing demand for seasoned corporate treasury professionals in Singapore. This follows the establishment by more companies of their headquarters or regional headquarters here. According to the Economic Development Board, of the 28,000 international companies based in Singapore, around 4,200 MNCs have corporate treasury operations.

Secondly, the 2008 global financial crisis, and the shrinkage of credit in the system at the time, served as a wake-up call to many companies on the importance of having a strong corporate treasury function. Corporate treasurers help to manage a company’s capital and funding needs in the most efficient and optimal way. This includes managing the company’s cashflow and financial risks on a day-to-day basis, while helping to raise capital through a variety of debt and equity instruments to meet longer-term financing needs. During the last financial crisis, as system liquidity dried up and credit costs increased, many Singapore companies realised the importance of having seasoned corporate treasurers manage the firm’s risks and funds so as to minimise their overall costs of capital.

As the largest bank in Singapore and a market leader in the T&M space, DBS works closely with many corporate treasurers. In recognition of the increased demands on corporate treasurers, and the growing complexity and sophistication of this specialist function, DBS has formed a partnership with SMU to expand and deepen the talent pool of such professionals.

DBS’ SGD 220,000 contribution will enable SMU to develop a specialised corporate treasury elective for undergraduate and postgraduate students, a first in Singapore. Through this elective, aspiring corporate treasurers will be able to enhance their professional knowledge and insights through practical learning. Not only will DBS T&M practitioners share their industry knowledge, the bank will also open up its dealing room to SMU students and provide internships to them.

Andrew Ng, Managing Director and Head of T&M at DBS said: “As a bank with a market-leading T&M franchise in Singapore, we want to partner our corporate customers and help them better manage their risks and seize opportunities. As business cycles become shorter, increasingly central to this is a strong corporate treasury function. DBS hopes that our collaboration with SMU will help bridge the corporate treasury talent gap and play a part in strengthening Singapore’s attractiveness as a regional hub for corporate treasury centres.”

Professor Howard Thomas, Dean of the Lee Kong Chian School of Business at SMU said: “The Lee Kong Chian School of Business at SMU has built up excellent linkages with the industry both in Singapore and abroad. We are committed to working together with our industry partners, and we see this collaboration with DBS as a way of giving back to the banking sector. As an institute of higher learning, we are always seeking to better ourselves, and in so doing, give our students a rich and rewarding SMU education. The enhancements to the business curriculum with these elective modules will undoubtedly better prepare both our undergraduates and postgraduates for the sector and we are pleased to partner the industry to develop talents for Singapore and beyond.”

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) supports this joint initiative to develop Singapore’s corporate treasury talent pool. Ong Chong Tee, Deputy Managing Director of MAS said: "Competency building is an important facet of manpower development to underpin the growth of our financial sector. The collaboration between DBS and SMU is an excellent example of an industry-academia initiative, where market practitioners and university faculty members can co-design a development programme in corporate treasury functions that combines academic rigor with industry perspectives. I commend DBS for its initiative and for its proactive stance towards talent development, and I hope this will spur other industry-academia partnerships.”

DBS T&M’s move to help develop Singapore’s corporate treasury talent pool was announced in conjunction with 10 years of successful partnerships and achievements in the Asian financial markets. DBS will be celebrating this milestone in a client event on 1 October 2010 with Mr Ong in attendance as guest-of-honour. During the event, staff of DBS T&M will also be doing their bit for the community with a donation of more than SGD 118,000 to The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund.

To better support corporate treasury centres in Singapore, this year, DBS T&M has also enhanced its corporate treasury advisory capabilities in several ways. The Bank has begun to offer structured solutions to companies on balance sheet optimisation to help them lower their funding costs and manage liquidity. T&M has also strengthened its advisory capabilities on complex cross-border deals, especially with those involving Asian currencies.

Following the establishment of a dedicated project finance team to support companies undertaking large-scale infrastructural projects within the Institutional Banking Group in April, T&M has similarly committed resources to support companies on managing these project risks so as to provide these firms with end-to-end client support.