SINGAPORE — Southeast Asia's biggest bank by assets is making a pitch to investors that Singapore and its businesses can help them navigate many of the uncertainties around the globe.
"I love it that the 'Little Red Dot' we all call home was open … predictable, and almost kind of boring," said CEO of DBS Group Tan Su Shan at the DBS Asia Future Forward conference in Singapore, referring to the city-state by one of its nicknames. "In this huge time of volatility, 'boring' is not bad, right?"
The investing and business climate worldwide has been upended by everything from trade wars and El Niño-related weather issues to the Iran conflict and the Russia-Ukraine war. Singapore, with its AAA-rated debt, stable political environment and position at the heart of Asia, is seen by many as a bastion of stability.
DBS has "one of the safest credit ratings in the world," she told CNBC in an interview on the sidelines of the conference. Temasek, the state-owned global investment company that managed assets worth 518 billion Singapore dollars ($404 billion) as of March 31 and is seen as contributing to Singapore's fiscal stability, is DBS's biggest shareholder.
DBS is also in a strong position to navigate the economic uncertainty around the world, Tan said.