Diversification is even more urgent post ‘Liberation Day’, says DBS CEO Tan Su Shan

[SINGAPORE] DBS Group chief executive Tan Su Shan said it was more important for businesses to diversify after the US announced tariffs on imports from dozens of countries on ‘Liberation Day’ in April.

Speaking at a Reuters NEXT Newsmaker interview on Tuesday (Nov 11), Tan said the pandemic “taught us that you can’t rely on one energy source, one tax source, one supply chain, one demand chain, right?”

“You’ve got to diversify, upstream, midstream, downstream, vendors, clients, suppliers, the whole world’s currencies. So I think Covid was a bit of a dry run for businesses to diversify.”

Tan, who became the first woman to lead DBS in March, said that when the tariffs hit, the strategy was to “press that diversification button even harder, especially on the demand side”.

DBS, ranked as Singapore and South-east Asia’s largest bank in terms of assets, reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings on Thursday, sending its shares to a record high, but guided that 2026 net interest margins will be slightly below 2025 levels. REUTERS