A DBS “digital handyman” is now helping to transform…Singtel

Singtel has poached another senior manager from the Singapore banking sector. Vishnu Bhan, a senior vice president focused on client engagement and digital solutions in DBS’s institutional banking group, has moved to the telecom company as director of digitalisation, group enterprise.

Bhan’s move follows that of Vashistha Maheshwari, CICC’s former head of Singapore M&A, who joined Singtel in May as director, group strategic investments. The two hires suggest that Singtel is eyeing up both technologists and bankers currently working in the Singapore finance industry.

Prior to joining DBS in 2017, Bhan spent about six years at ANZ, some of whose Asian operations were acquired by DBS that year. He was latterly an associate director, wholesale digital transformation, at the Australian bank, in charge of managing “digital initiatives in the Asia Pacific region”, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Bhan will likely be missed at DBS, and would likely be welcome back to the banking sector with open arms should he ever want to return. Jobs in digitalisation – also referred to as digital transformation – are in demand right now as banks (and other companies) in Singapore and globally undergo large-scale technology overhauls aimed at replacing legacy systems, encouraging customers to use online channels, and automating previously paper-based procedures.

Recent Singapore-based moves in the field include Wai Lam Sham, who led corporate strategy for APAC asset management at Deutsche and joined DBS in July as an executive director for digital value capture. Last month Felimy Greene, formerly chief digital and client experience officer for Citi’s Asia and EMEA consumer bank, moved to Standard Chartered as COO and global head of onboarding for retail banking, a job focused on driving digital transformation within the function.

Bhan began his career as a software engineer and web developer in India, and worked for Infosys Technologies from 2004 to 2005. He then completed an MBA, and joined the banking sector in 2007 as an IT analyst at Barclays.

Bhan describes himself online as a “digital handyman”. “I fix leaks, repair broken pipes, sort out the mess and make sure it doesn't happen again,” he writes on LinkedIn. “All this without it burning a hole in the pocket or delaying till the damage is permanent.”

Image credit: JGalione, Getty

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