DBS Bank

Is DBS safe?

Yes. DBS is one of the best-capitalised large banks anywhere: its CET1 ratioCET1 ratioA bank's highest-quality capital (mainly shares and retained profits) as a share of its risk-weighted assets. Higher means more room to absorb losses.More in the glossary was 16.6% at 30 June 2026, against a requirement of 9.2%, and Moody's rates it Aa1. Singapore dollar deposits at DBS Bank Ltd, which includes POSB, are insured by the Singapore Deposit InsuranceDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary Corporation (SDIC) up to S$100,000 per depositor. We score it 80/100, level with HSBC and two points above Commonwealth Bank. The catch is reliability rather than solvency. Repeated digital outages led the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to impose extra capital charges and a six-month freeze on non-essential IT changes and new business.

What SDIC covers, and what it does not

SDIC insures Singapore dollar savings, current and fixed deposit accounts, plus Supplementary Retirement Scheme money, up to S$100,000 per depositor at each member bank. CPF Investment Scheme and Retirement Sum Scheme monies get a separate S$100,000.

Three gaps matter at DBS in particular:

• POSB shares the limit. POSB is a brand of DBS Bank Ltd, so the S$100,000 covers both together.
• Foreign currency is not covered. Many DBS customers hold US or Australian dollar accounts for better rates. Those deposits rely on DBS alone.
• Investments are not deposits. Unit trusts, shares, structured deposits and wealth products sold by DBS are outside the scheme.

The S$100,000 limit is smaller than Australia's A$250,000 Financial Claims Scheme cover at Commonwealth Bank, and DBS is not on the Financial Stability Board's list of global systemically important banksG-SIBA global systemically important bank: one of the large banks the Financial Stability Board lists each year because its failure could harm the world economy.More in the glossary. MAS treats it as a domestic systemically important bank, with a higher minimum CET1 ratioCET1 ratioA bank's highest-quality capital (mainly shares and retained profits) as a share of its risk-weighted assets. Higher means more room to absorb losses.More in the glossary of 6.5% before buffers.

Capital and liquidity

Measure (30 June 2026)	DBS Group
CET1 ratioCET1 ratioA bank's highest-quality capital (mainly shares and retained profits) as a share of its risk-weighted assets. Higher means more room to absorb losses.More in the glossary	16.6%
CET1 ratio, Basel III floor fully phased in	14.6%
CET1 requirement including buffers	9.2%
Leverage ratioLeverage ratioA bank's Tier 1 capital divided by its total exposures, without adjusting for risk. It is a simple backstop to risk-based capital rules.More in the glossary	5.8%
Liquidity coverage ratioLiquidity coverage ratioA bank's cash and easy-to-sell assets compared with the money that could flow out in a 30-day crisis. It must be at least 100%.More in the glossary	142%
Customer deposits	S$638 billion
Customer loans	S$469 billion

A buffer of more than seven percentage points is unusually wide. Even on the stricter fully phased-in basis, which applies a floor on how low risk weights can go from 2029, the ratio is 14.6%, still more than five points above the requirement. DBS earned a record S$3.08 billion in the second quarter of 2026. Loans are about 74% of customer deposits, and the liquidity coverage ratio of 142% is well above the 100% minimum.

Outages and the MAS sanctions

DBS's digital record is the reason for its lower score. In November 2021 its digital banking services were down for about two days, and MAS responded by applying a 1.5x multiplier to the capital DBS must hold for operational risk. Disruptions returned in 2023. After outages on 29 March and 5 May 2023, MAS raised the multiplier to 1.8x, about S$1.6 billion of extra capital in total. When problems continued, it imposed a six-month pause from 1 November 2023 on non-essential IT changes, new business ventures and cuts to branches and ATMs, so that DBS would focus on fixing its systems.

MAS let the pause expire on 30 April 2024 after DBS improved its technology risk governance, change management and incident handling. It kept the 1.8x multiplier, to be lifted only when MAS is satisfied that DBS can keep services available and reliable. We found no MAS announcement lifting it by October 2026. A further short disruption hit payment services in May 2024.

For a depositor this means occasional loss of access, not loss of money. It is still a real cost if your salary, bills and card all run through one bank.

Conduct record

DBS has avoided the large fines that mark the records of HSBC or Commonwealth Bank. In June 2023 MAS imposed composition penalties on DBS, Citibank, OCBC and Swiss Life for anti-money launderingAnti-money launderingThe rules and checks that stop criminals from moving illegal money through banks, payment firms and crypto exchanges.More in the glossary breaches found while investigating Singapore links to Wirecard. In July 2025, when MAS fined nine financial institutions S$27.45 million over Singapore's S$3 billion money laundering case, DBS was not among them.

How to keep your money safe with DBS

1. Keep Singapore dollar deposits at DBS and POSB combined within S$100,000 if you want them fully insured, and spread larger sums to another SDIC member such as OCBC or UOB.
2. Treat foreign currency accounts as uninsured. Keep them only as large as you need.
3. Keep a second bank account and card at another bank, so an outage does not leave you unable to pay.
4. Use the digibank app's digital token, set low daily transfer limits and turn on transaction alerts. If you think you have been scammed, call DBS at once so it can try to stop the payment.

How we scored it

Capital (92) and stability history (90) are DBS's strongest factors, thanks to a very wide capital buffer and a clean crisis record. Digital security (52) is the weakest, reflecting the 2021 and 2023 outages and the MAS sanctions that followed. Deposit protectionDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary (80) is held back by the S$100,000 limit and the exclusion of foreign currency deposits.