Bank boss has pay slashed after presiding over tech outages in 2023
(2024/02/07)
- Reference: 1707307270
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/02/07/dbs_ceo_pay_docked/
- Source link:
Singapore banking group DBS has slashed its CEO's variable pay by 30 percent as an accountability measure after digital disruptions hit the organization in 2023.
“The Board determined that the variable compensation for the CEO and other members of the Group Management Committee should be cut to hold them accountable for the series of digital disruptions during the year,” [1]read a DBS press statement on Wednesday.
The committee, which includes other execs like DBS CFO Chng Sok Hui, received a milder 21 percent reduction from the previous year’s variable pay.
[2]
"We're taking accountability at the senior management, including, starting with me," CEO Piyush Gupta [3]reportedly commented magnanimously during an earnings call. "I think that's a good element of governance – if you can establish accountability and figure, you know, that people take responsibility for making fixes, that's a good place to start."
[4]
[5]
Despite the income slashing, Gupta is still entitled to $4.14 million (USD) in 2023 variable pay alone.
His 2022 total pay package amounted to roughly $11.5 million, according to the company's [6]annual report [PDF].
[7]Overheating datacenter stopped 2.5 million bank transactions
[8]Programmable or 'purpose-bound' money is coming, probably as a feature in central bank digital currencies
[9]Singapore to deter crypto investors with tactics like those used on smokers, gamblers
[10]Singtel does the 'we're building datacenters to host Nvidia clusters' thing
The financial penalty for executives is a response to [11]outages experienced in October of 2023 that resulted in full or partial unavailability of online banking apps for around two days. Customers and vendors were subsequently left without a way to make payments in a city-state that is increasingly reliant on digital financial systems.
The outage was eventually attributed to a technical issue in a datacenter cooling system. DBS could not fully recover its systems at its backup datacenter due to a network misconfiguration.
[12]
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) responded by slapping the bank with hefty fines. It barred DBS from reducing the size of its branch and ATM network, making any non-essential IT changes, or acquiring new business ventures for six months.
The bank was also required to apply a multiplier of 1.8 times to its risk-weighted assets for operational risk.
On Wednesday, DBS also boasted it made a roughly $60 million "whole of bank effort" towards improving technology and resilience.
[13]
$18.6 million of the total has already been spent on items like consultants and new hires in senior staff, including a head of tech risk and risk auditing personnel.
"These efforts will enable the bank to better pre-empt disruptions to its services, provide customers with alternate channels for payments and account enquiries during disruptions, and shorten incident recovery time," promised the bank. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.dbs.com/newsroom/DBS_full_year_net_profit_rises_26PCT_to_record_SGD_10_3_billion_return_on_equity_rises_to_18_0pct
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/cxo&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZcO3OkHegN1th4caYXbMPAAAAU8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Finance/Singapore-s-DBS-slashes-CEO-s-2023-pay-by-3m
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/cxo&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZcO3OkHegN1th4caYXbMPAAAAU8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[6] https://www.dbs.com/iwov-resources/images/investors/annual-report/dbs-annual-report-2022.pdf?pid=sg-group-pweb-investors-pdf-2022-a-different-kind-of-bank
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/07/overheating_datacenter_singapore/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/21/programmable_money/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/24/singapore_to_regulate_crypto/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/01/singtel_inks_nvidia_deal_to/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/07/overheating_datacenter_singapore/
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[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
“The Board determined that the variable compensation for the CEO and other members of the Group Management Committee should be cut to hold them accountable for the series of digital disruptions during the year,” [1]read a DBS press statement on Wednesday.
The committee, which includes other execs like DBS CFO Chng Sok Hui, received a milder 21 percent reduction from the previous year’s variable pay.
[2]
"We're taking accountability at the senior management, including, starting with me," CEO Piyush Gupta [3]reportedly commented magnanimously during an earnings call. "I think that's a good element of governance – if you can establish accountability and figure, you know, that people take responsibility for making fixes, that's a good place to start."
[4]
[5]
Despite the income slashing, Gupta is still entitled to $4.14 million (USD) in 2023 variable pay alone.
His 2022 total pay package amounted to roughly $11.5 million, according to the company's [6]annual report [PDF].
[7]Overheating datacenter stopped 2.5 million bank transactions
[8]Programmable or 'purpose-bound' money is coming, probably as a feature in central bank digital currencies
[9]Singapore to deter crypto investors with tactics like those used on smokers, gamblers
[10]Singtel does the 'we're building datacenters to host Nvidia clusters' thing
The financial penalty for executives is a response to [11]outages experienced in October of 2023 that resulted in full or partial unavailability of online banking apps for around two days. Customers and vendors were subsequently left without a way to make payments in a city-state that is increasingly reliant on digital financial systems.
The outage was eventually attributed to a technical issue in a datacenter cooling system. DBS could not fully recover its systems at its backup datacenter due to a network misconfiguration.
[12]
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) responded by slapping the bank with hefty fines. It barred DBS from reducing the size of its branch and ATM network, making any non-essential IT changes, or acquiring new business ventures for six months.
The bank was also required to apply a multiplier of 1.8 times to its risk-weighted assets for operational risk.
On Wednesday, DBS also boasted it made a roughly $60 million "whole of bank effort" towards improving technology and resilience.
[13]
$18.6 million of the total has already been spent on items like consultants and new hires in senior staff, including a head of tech risk and risk auditing personnel.
"These efforts will enable the bank to better pre-empt disruptions to its services, provide customers with alternate channels for payments and account enquiries during disruptions, and shorten incident recovery time," promised the bank. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.dbs.com/newsroom/DBS_full_year_net_profit_rises_26PCT_to_record_SGD_10_3_billion_return_on_equity_rises_to_18_0pct
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/cxo&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZcO3OkHegN1th4caYXbMPAAAAU8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Finance/Singapore-s-DBS-slashes-CEO-s-2023-pay-by-3m
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/cxo&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZcO3OkHegN1th4caYXbMPAAAAU8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/cxo&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZcO3OkHegN1th4caYXbMPAAAAU8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.dbs.com/iwov-resources/images/investors/annual-report/dbs-annual-report-2022.pdf?pid=sg-group-pweb-investors-pdf-2022-a-different-kind-of-bank
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/07/overheating_datacenter_singapore/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/21/programmable_money/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/24/singapore_to_regulate_crypto/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/01/singtel_inks_nvidia_deal_to/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/07/overheating_datacenter_singapore/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/cxo&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZcO3OkHegN1th4caYXbMPAAAAU8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/cxo&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZcO3OkHegN1th4caYXbMPAAAAU8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: An updowngrade might help
sev.monster
Lots of cane shaking and "why back in my day" in this post.
Ultimately the problem is the human element, not the tools. Sure, simpler tools allow people to grasp the concept easier and faster, but they also harm productivity and throughput. Where the best mark on that meter is I am not learned enough to know. But the solution is not to regress and ignore all advancements and the lessons we'vd learned from them.
I feel bad for your liver.
How refreshing
Missing Semicolon
Big financial company screws up. Gets it's financial adventuring pruned back, and the senior execs take a haircut.
But that it would be like this here!
"Gupta is still entitled to $4.14 million (USD) in 2023 variable pay alone"
Pascal Monett
So he could have taken an 80% cut.
The Buck Stops where exactly ? Oh right, at YOU.
And what exactly is variable in your pay ? How much it goes up ?
30%. Oh well, a token slap on the wrist is better than nothing, I guess. And it's a damn sight better than we can manage.
An updowngrade might help
We never say any issues like this in the 1950's to 1960's ... back in the days when even Donald Trump was running everything quite well with no complaints and no computers. If banking was only recorded in their internal paperwork then it would be easy for all the bankers to see problems too but they would be able to see a fix and do it.
I remember starting to learn everything back in the 50's, I started drinking beer when I was 4 years old and have never had any personal problems since then.