DBS Bank's Competitive Landscape: PESTLE, Porter's, and Strategies

This report provides an analysis of DBS Bank, a multinational banking corporation headquartered in Singapore, evaluating its market position and competitive environment. The analysis employs PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces frameworks to assess the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors influencing DBS, as well as the competitive forces within the banking industry. The report identifies key threats and opportunities for DBS Bank in Singapore, considering factors such as government policies, economic stability, consumer behavior, technological advancements, and the competitive landscape. Based on this analysis, the report offers four management strategies to help DBS Bank maintain its leading position in the Singaporean and Southeast Asian markets. The report concludes that while DBS Bank currently holds a strong position, the implementation of these strategies is crucial for continued success in the face of evolving market dynamics and increasing competition.

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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Executive Summary
The purpose of this report is to evaluate the threats and opportunities of DBS Bank in Singapore
with the help of PESTLE and Porters Five Forces Framework. On the basis of the this analysis,
four management strategies are being suggested for the organization to help it to cope up with
the current competitive market of Singapore. Finally, it has been concluded that though DBS
Bank is one of the best banking sector of Singapore and South East Asia, in order to maintain its
position, DBS bank needs to implement the suggested strategies.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
1. PESTEL Analysis of DBS Bank..............................................................................................3
2. Porter’s Five Forces Analysis of DBS Bank...........................................................................7
3. Threats and Opportunities of DBS Bank...............................................................................10
4. Management Recommendations for DBS Bank....................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
Reference List................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
The Development Bank of Singapore Limited (DBS) is a multinational banking
corporation that provides financial services. The company has its head quarter located at Marina
Bay in Singapore. The government of Singapore established DBS in 1968 and today it has
acquired the position of the largest bank in South East Asia. Apart from Singapore,DBS has its
branches in Dubai, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia
and various other parts of the world. Not only this, DBMS is dominating the market of Both
Hong Kong and Singapore in treasury and market, consumer banking, securities brokerage, asset
management, debt fund raising and equity.
DBS started mobile banking service on 15 th April 2010 for both the customers of DBS
and Post office Saving Bank. This service allows the consumers to view their credit card and
banking accounts, pay bills and transfer funds just with the help of their mobile phone. All they
need to do is to download the DBS mBanking or the POSB mBanking application from Google
store or iTunes app store. Besides mBanking, DBS bank also launched DBS Hotspot Pre-
Accelerator that enables cultivation of entrepreneurship in Singapore with the help of
experimentation, training and mentorship. Renowned for its leadership in Asia, The Company
has already bagged an award as “Asia’s Best Bank” and “Asia’s Safest Bank” given by
Euromoney and Global Finance respectively.
Discussion
1. PESTEL Analysis of DBS Bank
PESTEL analysis can be defined as a tool or framework used by the marketers of an
organization in order to analyze the external marketing environment that imposes an impact on
the organization. The Word PESTEL stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological,
Environmental and Legal analysis (Yüksel, 2012).

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Figure 1: PESTLE Analysis Model
(Source – Aithal, 2016)
Political Analysis
Political analysis is done to analyses the degree of government intervention in the
economy (Pollock III, 2015). This majorly includes political stability and various government
policies like tax policy, labor law, trade restrictions and environmental law. The government of
Singapore has ranked second in ‘Global Competiveness Report for a year 2012-2013’ conducted
by World Economic Forum. It can be understood that Singapore has a highly stable
governmental policies along with rigid trade and taxation policies. Considering the fact that
Singapore has an efficient and transparent government, organizations including banking
industries in Singapore enjoys very low political risk. Besides that, development of various
business industries in Singapore encourages the more banking industries to expand their business
in the country. Hence, it can be considered as a threat for already existing banking industries like
DBS since they have to face a highly competitive market. However, according to Tremewan,
(2016), DBS Bank, being one of the chief banking industries have low risk from the competitive
market in Singapore and hence enjoys the development of the economy.

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Economic Analysis
Economic analysis includes economic growth, exchange rates, interest rates, disposable
income of the businesses and customers and inflation of the country. Considering the fact that
Singapore has one of the most open and competitive economic environment in the world, the
country is highly vulnerable to global external shocks that can shake the economic stability of
the country. Global economic issues like the financial crisis in 2008, slow economic growth of
China and US recession has affected the country badly. Since Singapore dollar is slowly gaining
back its strength in the current global market, DBS is facing difficulties to enhance its business
in countries of Europe, South America and Africa. However, the still developing and high per
capita of Singapore is expected to enhance the market for the high-end customers of DBS.
Besides that, developed countries like Singapore are suffering from increased labor costs. This in
turn, is imposing a negative impact on the cost advantage of the Company and is acting as a
major disadvantage.
Social Analysis
Social factor evaluate the mentality of the consumers in a given market. Social factor
generally includes distribution of wealth of the country, education level of the consumers,
lifestyle and trend changes and population demographics. Since Singapore is a developed
country, the unemployment rate is very low in the country (Aithal, 2016). Hence, a majority of
the citizens in Singapore invest money on high-class luxurious products. Besides that, foreigners
who reside in or visit Singapore for working purposes are usually wealthy and also invests on
luxurious products. Due to increased wealth and population, citizens of Singapore depend on
banks to create accounts and perform fund transfer that includes both business and personnel
usage. Thus, Singapore offers a vast opportunity to banking industry including DBS Bank to
prosper. Apart from this, being a developed country, High literacy rate in Singapore is a crucial
reason behind the creation of skilled and efficient labor base for various business organizations
including Singapore.
Technological Analysis
Technological factors includes recognition of potential technologies, rate of technological
advances, new technological platforms and rate of technological obsolescence that are available

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in the chosen country. Singapore has highly developed communication system and a wide spread
IT infrastructure (Ianchovichina & Walmsley, 2012). This serves as an opportunity for banking
industries like DBS bank to expand their business through e-commerce and thus increase the
connectivity with their consumers. Besides that, DBS bank has successfully implemented the
Infocomm Technology to increase ATM network efficiency and consumer satisfaction.
Legal Analysis
Legal analysis includes analysis of regulations and laws of the chosen country that can
impose a positive or negative impact on the business. Considering the fact that Singapore is
experiencing a rapid growth in economy, Monetary Authority of Singapore, which is the
financial regulatory authority, is implementing increased level of litigation in both financial and
public sectors (Leechaianan & Longmire, 2013). Thus, there is a high chance for DBMS to face
increased laws and regulations.
Environmental Analysis
Environmental analysis includes various environmental laws and regulations of a country
that a company needs to abide by to expand its business in that particular country. However,
banking industries are supposed to impose lowest negative impact on the environment of
Singapore.
According to research, Singapore is currently suffering from increased pollution rates
due to industrialization. The mangrove forest of the country has also been depleted by 30 percent
and being a well-known organization DBMS is encouraging environmental responsibilities of
both its international and Singapore consumers. Besides encouraging its consumers, the
organization runs green initiative in their offices in order to encourage its workers to recycle
waste materials and save energy. According to Pollock III, (2015), the bank also contributed a
huge amount of cash to various charities in order to assist relief effort for earthquake that
happened in China and cyclone and snowstorms that had happened in Myanmar.

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Figure 2: Profit and uptrend of DBS Bank
(Source - Street, 2012)
2. Porter’s Five Forces Analysis of DBS Bank
Porter’s Five Forces model is another tool that analyze the competitive environment in
which a company or a product work. This analysis is done with the help of five major
competitive forces, namely, Threat of new entrance, bargaining power of the consumers,
bargaining power of the suppliers, Revelry among existing industries and threat of the substitutes
(Rothaermel, 2015).

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Figure 3: Porter’s five forces framework
(Source - Gobble, 2012)
Threat of the new entrants
This factor depends on the type of entry barriers in the market of the chosen country. The
rigidity of the barrier is inversely proportional to the threat of the new entrants for the existing
companies (Marshall, 2013). Considering the fact that Singapore attracts business industries
from all over the world, existing banking industries in Singapore experience high threat of new
entries since approximately 300 banks are established in Singapore every year. Despite high
barriers to entry that includes high cost of initiating a new business and a good number of
government laws and regulations, existing banking industries including DBS Bank experience
major threat. To overcome this issue, DBS bank has developed new strategies that includes
acquisition and merger policies. The organization acquires the newly developed banking
industries in order to turn their existence from a threat to a beneficial factor.
Bargaining power of the consumers
This factor depends on the availability of the number of suppliers offering products from
in an industry and is directly proportional to the strength to the number of consumers of the
industry (Dälken, 2014). Bargaining power of the consumers is directly proportional to the

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number of suppliers in a specific industry. One of the chief factors that that influence the
bargaining power of the consumer in banking industry of Singapore is the high switching cost.
The fact that majority of the consumers have their bank requirement, checking, mortgage and
savings in a specific bank of their choice, switching to other bank is a expensive affair for the
consumers. DBS bank takes this advantage with the help of which it regulates the bargaining
power of its consumers.
Bargaining power of the suppliers
This factor depends on the ratio of the dependency of the industries on the suppliers and
the availability of the suppliers in the industry. In industries where there are many suppliers
against a very few number of firms, the bargaining power of the suppliers is low in that industry
and vice versa. Considering the fact that capital is the primary resource for banking industries,
the four major suppliers of capital include loans and mortgages, mortgage-backed securities,
consumer deposits and loans obtained from other financial institutions. In order to acquire
necessary resources needed to carry out the business, DBS bank is utilizing all the four factors.
Thus, it can be said that bargaining power of the suppliers for DBS Bank ranges from high to
medium considering the fact that there are a good number of banks in Singapore.
Rivalry among existing industries
Rivalry among existing industries depends on the number of organizations present in a
Market. More the number of organizations more is the competition between them. Since the
banking industries of Asia are highly competitive and are always in search of opportunities to
beat the competition by attracting consumers towards themselves, banks in Singapore, including
DBS Bank, experience high Competitive rivalry. Besides that, a good number of banking
industries from Europe, America and other parts of Asia are expanding their branches in
Singapore, which in turn increases the competition for DBS. However, DBS has adopted
strategies to cope up with the highly competitive market. The strategies of DBS includes offering
better investment services, lower financing and higher interest rates to the consumers. Besides
that, the company also implements business integration like acquisition and merger policies to
enhance and expand its operation size in order to cope up with the competition.
Threat from the substitutes

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This factor depends on the number of substitute products that are available from other
industries for the consumers (Dobbs, 2014). More is the number of substitute products more is
the threat from substitutes. For banking industries, major substitutes available to the consumers
are insurance, mutual funds and fixed income securities. However according to research, for
banking industries in Singapore including DBS Bank, lower threat rate is experienced for
deposits and withdrawal services. Gobble, (2012) argued that, since various electronic, Car and
jewelry companies offers higher purchase payment for items having higher values that needs a
lower interest rate compared to bank rates, it discourages the consumers to take loans. Hence,
this can be considered as a crucial threat for the company.
Internal analysis
3. Threats and Opportunities of DBS Bank
Threats Opportunities
The uncertain economic condition of Singapore is
a major threat to the organization.
Increasing competition in the industry can be
considered as another threat for the company.
Increasing interest rates is another threat for the
company.
Since a lot of business organizations are rising up
in Singapore, it can be considered as the
opportunity of the DBS Bank.
The bank needs to explore more emerging
markets and participate in various business
integrations (Dbs.com.,2018).
Since labor cost in Singapore is high, the bank can
recruit employees from the neighboring regions in
cheaper costs.
Table 1: Opportunities and Threats of DBS Bank
(Created By Author)
4. Management Recommendations for DBS Bank
The Organization should participate in more business integration
DBS Bank should get more involved in business integrations like merger and acquisition.
Merging smaller companies in the competitive banking industry of Singapore is really crucial
since it will help the organization to enhance its revenue and size. Not only this, integration with
other institutions will help the company to discover its opportunities in other emerging markets
in other countries (Sia, Soh& Weill, 2016). Thus, active participation in business integration will

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not only enable DBS Bank to find out appropriate markets for its business, but also will help the
company to expand its business all over the world.
DBS Bank should explore more markets
Considering the fact that DBS is one of the most renowned banking industries in South
East Asia and Singapore, it can be understood that it is well positioned in these regions. However
the company is still to expand its branches in other countries like china and Japan which are
currently appropriate for expanding baking industries. China being the country with the largest
population can provide an efficient market for the company. Thus, the company should work on
expanding its business beyond Asian market (Goddard, Molyneux & Zhou, 2012).
The bank should diversify its services and products
One of the best policies undertaken by DBS Bank that has helped the organization to
acquire the best position in both South East Asia and Singapore is to diversify its products.
However, DBS bank needs to work more on it to enhance and encourage its future growth. In
order to fulfill the various requirements of consumers of different fashion, test and preferences,
the company needs to offer diverse products to the consumers (Rodan, 2016). Product
diversification will help the company to increase its overall sale and hence the yearly revenue of
the company will also increase.
DBS Bank should recruit employees from regions where labor cost is cheaper
It has already being discussed that Singapore is experiencing labor shortage and this in
turn has increased the labor cost largely. Thus, it has become difficult for DBS to employ
workers with a high cost. However, several neighboring countries of Singapore like China has
efficient labors who are available in a much cheaper rate. It provides the company with a great
opportunity to acquire labors from those regions in order to increase its production with a much
lesser production cost. This will eventually result in increase in the overall revenue of the
company.
Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that, since DBS Bank has acquired the
position of the best organization in regions where it operates, it is well understood that the

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organization has proper management strategies that has results in good relationship between the
company and consumers. However, due to rapid change in the banking market of Singapore the
company needs to identify the threats from various aspects and hence implement new strategies
to cope up with the current market situation. New strategies are also needed to expand its
business to other parts of the world that have potential market for business. All these efforts will
not only help the company to maintain its position in the global market, but also will increase the
overall revenue of the company. Hence DBS bank should work on eliminating the threats faced
by it like high labor cost and uncertain economic conditions and by implementing the above-
mentioned strategies to ensure a highly prosperous future.

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