DBS : 2023From Ambition to Action

Contents

CEO Message

4 CEO message

Highlights

6 Highlights

Approach

7 Our sustainability strategy

8 Governance of sustainability

10 Stakeholder engagement

12 Material ESG factors

13 Human rights

Pillar 1

Responsible Banking

16 Responsible financing

37 Sustainable living

40 Financial inclusion

Pillar 2

Responsible

Business Practices

46 Enhancing employee engagement

• and culture

49 Developing our people

52 Driving diversity, equity and inclusion

59 Managing our environmental footprint

64 Sustainable procurement

67 Technology resilience

• (including cyber security) 70 Data governance
  74 Preventing financial crime
  77 Fair dealing
  79 Responsible tax management

Pillar 3

Impact Beyond Banking

82 DBS Foundation

87 Employee volunteerism

92 Towards Zero Food Waste

Additional Disclosures

94 Summary of performance and targets 96 10 Principles of UN Global Compact

97 GRI Content Index

102 SASB Standards

104 Mapping to TCFD recommendations

105 Methodology3for climate scenario analysis modelling

106 Selected ESG-related awards, indices and ratings 107 Commitments and memberships

109 Independent3limited assurance report on sustainability information

About us

DBS is a leading financial services group in Asia with a presence in 19 markets. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, DBS is in the three key Asian axes of growth: Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The bank's "AA-" and "Aa1" credit ratings are also among the highest in the world.

Recognised for its global leadership, DBS has been named "World's Best Bank" by Global Finance, "World's Best Bank" by Euromoney and "Global Bank of the Year" by The Banker. The bank is at the forefront of leveraging digital technology to shape the future of banking and has been named "World's Best Digital Bank" by Euromoney and the world's "Most Innovative in Digital Banking" by The Banker. In addition, DBS has been accorded the "Safest Bank in Asia" award by Global Finance for 15 consecutive years from 2009 to 2023.

About this report

This Sustainability Report is approved by the Board and prepared in accordance with, and taking reference to, the following regulations, standards, and guidelines:

• Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (SGX-ST) Listing Rules 711A and 711B on Sustainability Report, and Practice Note 7.6 Sustainability Reporting Guide (updated January 2022)

• The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations by the Financial Stability Board (updated October 2021)

• The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards 2021 (updated July 2021)

• The Financial Institutions Climate-related Disclosure Document under the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)-convened Green Finance Industry Taskforce (published May 2021)

• The Guidelines for Climate Target Setting for Banks by the UN Environment Programme - Finance Initiative (issued April 2021)

• The Guidelines on Responsible Financing issued in October 2015 by the Association of Banks in Singapore (revised June 2018)

• The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards based on the three SICS industries within the Financials sector most aligned with our mix of businesses: Commercial Banks (FN-CB), Consumer Finance (FN-CF), and Mortgage Finance (FN-MF)

We are a signatory to the United Nations (UN) Global Compact and are committed to the 10 Principles.

Coverage

This report covers the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles, initiatives and performance of our operations across our core markets. It contains information for the financial year 1 January to 31 December 2023, unless otherwise stated. In 2023, DBS completed the acquisition of Citigroup Inc.'s consumer banking business in Taiwan (Citi Consumer Taiwan). The scope of this report includes Citi Consumer Taiwan for employee-related data, and selected initiatives, but excludes operational environmental data as integration of reporting systems is still underway. Our sustainability reporting processes are subjected to internal review, with selected indicators also subjected to external assurance as detailed on pages 109 to 110. The report is to be read in conjunction with the Annual Report 2023and other sustainability-related disclosures on our website.

Feedback

We welcome feedback on this report and any aspect of our sustainability performance. Please address all feedback to DBS Group Sustainability at sustainability@dbs.com.

2023 was a year of many struggles but also accomplishments, and it underscored how the virtues of hard work and perseverance give rise to hope.

Challenges were abundant. The war between Russia and Ukraine raged on, additional armed conflicts broke out, most notably between Israel and Hamas, and tensions between the superpowers remained high. All these complicated geopolitics further and contributed to economic headwinds. While inflation eased after global central banks aggressively hiked rates, it persisted at elevated levels. Consequently, both consumers and businesses continued to face significant strain.

Despite this, a hard landing of the global economy was avoided. In particular, most of Asia's economies remained robust. China and India, the two most populous economies of the world, both ended the year with a higher growth

rate than in 2022. And the outlook for Southeast Asian economies improved, as the electronics export cycle bottomed out and travel and tourism continued to recover.

On the climate front, we witnessed an unprecedented number of new records this past year. June to December were the warmest months on record. Ocean temperatures were the hottest ever measured. All of this has been exacerbated by the start of El Niño, a natural climate shift that tends to raise global temperatures. But the science is clear, the trajectory of global warming can only be changed if we reduce historically high atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at speed and scale.

Tragically, the impacts from climate change on the economy and society are becoming ever more evident. Studies have shown that insured and uninsured economic losses resulting from extreme climate-related weather conditions

Piyush Gupta, CEO DBS Group Holdings

in 2023 were significantly higher than recent averages. The number of people directly impacted by these calamities reached new highs, with the poor disproportionately affected, worsening social inequalities.

Encouragingly, governments and regulators around the world have implemented an increasing number of meaningful policies that support the transition to net zero, which is being complemented by significant efforts of the private sector to transform global industries and supply chains.

Globally, investments in clean energy overtook spending on fossil fuel at a ratio of 1.7:1, according to the International Energy Agency. Just five years ago, this ratio stood at 1:1. Additionally, 118 countries pledged at the COP28 climate summit to triple the world's renewable energy capacity

by 2030. The electrification of transport has greatly accelerated across markets, and battery production has been scaling up. Nearer to home, ASEAN ramped up its efforts to decarbonise and aims to create green corridors. China's decarbonisation efforts have been astounding. For example, in 2023 it installed over half of the world's total renewable power generation capacity, grew to become the world's largest electric vehicle market and exporter, and planted more trees than any other country in the world.

From ambition to action

Against this backdrop, we further refined our approach and leveraged the increased capacity we had built in previous years to double down on various strategic initiatives.

Our sustainability strategy remains centred around embedding environmental and social considerations into the fabric of our business via three pillars: (1) Responsible Banking that seeks to empower our clients to being more sustainable and to promote greater access to essential financial services, (2) Responsible Business Practices that focuses on how we conduct ourselves as an organisation, and (3) Impact Beyond Banking that supports social enterprises and community causes, as well as employee volunteerism.

In our Responsible Banking pillar, we materially expanded our client engagement with large corporate customers on climate to deliver on the bold commitments we made in 2022 when we published 'Our Path to Net Zero

• Supporting Asia's Transition to a Low Carbon Economy'. Apart from offering advisory services related to our clients' net zero transition journeys, we translated this engagement into finance solutions. Our sustainable financing commitments (for loans and trade finance), net of payments,

"We committed up to SGD 1 billion over the next 10 years to improve lives and livelihoods of the low-income and underprivileged, and foster a more inclusive society"

Piyush Gupta, CEO DBS Group Holdings

totalling SGD 665 million to micro and small businesses to support their working capital needs. Furthermore, we developed a personal finance guidance, the DBS Financial Planning Portal, to achieve holistic financial wellness across the key life stages.

In our Responsible Business Practices pillar, we established the Employee Experience Council to drive four key employee journeys, namely employee well-

Foundation also committed another SGD 5.6 million

to support 11 new programmes to build future-ready skills and food security among vulnerable segments through its Community Impact Chapter.

Recognising our role in society and pursuing our Vision

stood at around SGD 70 billion as of December, up from SGD 51 billion in the previous year. We also facilitated close to SGD 18 billion of ESG bond issuances in 2023.

We supported global efforts related to the managed and early phase out of coal in Asia. Asia has around 5,000 operational coal power plants. It will be critical to shut them down well ahead of the end of their operating lives to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. This endeavour is very complex, especially given the socio-economic context in Asia and the imperative to accomplish this in a just manner. To this end, we have supported and collaborated in initiatives with research and advocacy efforts to foster an ecosystem approach. For example, we co-led work related to the public consultation and final report of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero ('GFANZ') on 'Financing the Managed Phaseout of Coal-Fired Power Plants in Asia Pacific'. Furthermore, we have acted as financial advisor to the Indonesian Investment Authority ('INA') related to such transactions. During COP28, INA and various partners signed a framework agreement and conditionally agreed to shorten the operating life of Cirebon-1, a 660 MW coal-fired power plant located on Java, by around seven years.

In addition to our focus on large corporates, we doubled down on our efforts to help SMEs in their sustainability efforts. Last year, we established several strategic partnerships with industry leaders to provide more comprehensive solutions to SMEs. One example is our new

collaboration with H&M Group, which seeks to accelerate the adoption of green initiatives across the fashion supply chain. In Hong Kong, we partnered CLP Power to support SMEs' low-carbon transition. Additionally, we signed partnerships with a number of solutions providers such as Keppel Corp, Schneider Electric and Reset Carbon, among others. Furthermore, we engaged over 1,000 SMEs through various sustainability training courses and programmes to develop their capability and capacity in the field.

Next to all these efforts on client engagement, we also further strengthened our ESG risk management capabilities. We enhanced relevant processes and our ESG data architecture, created new analytical tools, and formed a new management position, the Head of ESG Credit Risk.

In our Consumer Banking Group, we continued our efforts to provide customers with financial planning and an array of investment and financing solutions aimed at helping them to live more sustainably. For example, we enhanced and expanded our offerings on LiveBetter, our one-stop digital sustainability platform, which we had launched in 2021.

It is now available in Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia. To date, more than SGD 21 million has been invested through Invest Better in green funds and ETFs, and over SGD 2 million donated through Give Better for environmental and social causes.

Financial inclusion, banking the under-banked and nurturing healthy financial planning, has always been a core focus area for us. Last year, we approved over 4,400 unsecured loans

being, workload, assimilation of new hires and rewards

• recognition. We also launched our flagship Women Leadership Programme which is specifically designed to build, support, and sustain a robust community of senior women leaders and strengthen our pipeline for senior leadership in the bank. In our procurement, we uplifted our Sustainable Sourcing Principles to encourage suppliers to adopt a socially and environmentally restorative approach in supply of products and services. Furthermore, we implemented a cloud-based data management platform to improve the end-to-end environmental data management. This will enable us to further sharpen our strategy focused on reducing the environmental footprint of our own operations. Additionally, we materially expanded our sustainability learning campus to deepen knowledge of and empower employees to support our agenda and strategic initiatives. As one example, we trained over 1,800 relationship managers and credit risk managers to empower them with necessary climate-related knowledge.

Finally, in our Impact Beyond Banking pillar, we committed up to SGD 1 billion over the next 10 years to improve lives and livelihoods of the low-incomeand underprivileged, and foster a more inclusive society. In addition, our workforce committed to over 1.5 million volunteer hours over the next decade to give back to society. In 2023, the DBS Foundation awarded SGD 3.7 million in grant funding to 24 SMEs and social enterprises across the region through its Business for Impact Chapter. The DBS

Last year, DBS marked our 55th anniversary. With roots as the Development Bank of Singapore, established with the express intent to help Singapore's industrialisation, the idea of being sustainable, being relevant to society, doing real things for real people, and therefore having a purpose, has been deeply rooted in our DNA.

While we are a different kind of bank today, we have always maintained our strong sense of purpose, and developed our Vision to be the Best Bank for a Better World. This means taking action now to create a more prosperous, inclusive and sustainable future for generations to come.

The path ahead is formidable and there is still much to be done. I am grateful for the hard work and perseverance of DBS employees, as well as our clients and partners, on this journey. I am confident that our collective efforts and dedication will allow us to accelerate action at scale and speed, to support a future in Asia which is greener, and just.

Piyush Gupta

CEO

DBS Group Holdings

Summary of performance against our climate targets

01

Responsible

Banking

Committed

SGD 70 billion

in sustainable financing, net of repayments and facilitated SGD 18 billion in ESG bond issuances as an active bookrunner

02

Responsible

Business Practices

Established

Employee Experience Council

to drive better employee journeys in DBS

03

Impact Beyond

Banking

Committed up to

SGD 1 billion

over 10 years to improve lives and livelihoods of the low-income and underprivileged

Established

Powerful ecosystem partnerships

with H&M Group and CLP Power, among others,

to better service our customers' sustainability needs

Launched

Women Leadership Programme

to build, support, and sustain our community of senior women leaders

Awarded

SGD 3.7 million

in grant funding through DBS Foundation Business for Impact Grant Award

Committed

SGD 5.6 million

to programmes on future- ready skills and food security for vulnerable segments

The summary of performance against our climate targets tracks the annual variance against the science-informed decarbonisation pathways we have chosen to guide us towards our interim 2030 targets and net zero 2050 targets for each of our priority sectors. We have observed good progress in five out of seven sectors, and they track well against the relevant science-informed decarbonisation pathways. However, we recognise that in very hard-to-abate sectors, such as Steel (almost on track) and Shipping (not on track), there are dependencies and structural challenges that require long-term changes. Addressing these will often need broader ecosystem partnerships across the public and private sectors. We remain committed to working with our clients and fostering partnerships to enable an economy- wide transition to net zero that is orderly and just.

Read more about our sustainability achievements and initiatives in the following chapters of our Sustainability Report.

Approved

> 4,400 unsecured loans

in Singapore, totalling SGD 665 million, as part of our wider regional support for the working capital needs of micro and small businesses in Asia

Facilitated

> SGD 21 million

investments in green funds and ETFs through LiveBetter platform since November 2021

Enhanced

Sustainability Learning Campus

to further build bank-wide sustainability capabilities

Achieved

Green Mark Platinum for > 80%

of manned retail branches in Singapore

Delivered

> 200,000 employee volunteering hours

reaching >150,000 beneficiaries

Subsidised

4.67 million meals

through DBS PayLah! weekly hawker meal initiative

Approach

Our sustainability strategy

Guided by our vision to be the "Best Bank for a Better World", DBS seeks to create long-term value for stakeholders in

a sustainable way. We do this by using our resources to build competitive advantages that unlock new business opportunities for sustainable value creation.

Our Vison

Best Bank for a Better World

Environmental and social factors are woven into the fabric of our business across three pillars

to create sustainable outcomes for our stakeholders.

CONTENTS

01Responsible Banking

We are supporting our clients to be more sustainable and transition towards lower-carbon business models, integrating sustainability into financing solutions and investment opportunities, and democratising banking services to meet our customers' specific needs.

02 Responsible

Business

Practices

We believe in doing the right thing by our people and embedding environmental and societal factors in our business operations.

03 Impact

Beyond

Banking

We seek to be a force for good by championing businesses for impact and uplifting vulnerable communities to catalyse positive environmental and social impact.

Supporting sustainable development

As a member of the United Nations Global Compact, we have a role to play in promoting sustainable development. We are committed to drive progress towards achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). All 17 interrelated goals represent an ambitious sustainability agenda by 2030.

We see sustainability as an active value driver that offers new opportunities, builds resilience against ESG risks and strengthens trust with our stakeholders. Across the three pillars of our sustainability strategy, we have set metrics and targets, and developed initiatives to drive sustainable outcomes. We report on our approach and performance against our material ESG factors in the following chapters of this report.

We have chosen to focus on the following six SDGs which we believe we can make the most meaningful contributions to, taking into account the markets in which we operate.

Read more about how we are contributing to the SDGs in the chapters that follow.

Governance of sustainability

Effective governance and board oversight is crucial to ensure resilience and drive long-term value creation. At DBS, the Board is collectively responsible for the long-term success of the bank and has ultimate responsibility of our sustainability strategy and reporting. It provides constructive challenge and strategic advice to management.

Board and Board Committees

In 2022, the Board established our Board Sustainability Committee (BSC) to provide greater governance and oversight on our sustainability agenda, including our net zero commitment, which is a strategic priority for the bank.

The BSC is chaired by DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta. Its members come from different business backgrounds and bring together complimentary skills and experience. The BSC members who are also DBS Board members, include Chng Kai Fong, Judy Lee, Tham Sai Choy and David Ho, who was newly appointed to the bank's Board of Directors in April 2023. In addition to DBS Board members, the BSC also comprises of a non-director member and sustainability expert, Dr. Ben Caldecott, the founding Director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group at the University of Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.

Read more about the profiles of our Board of Directors in our Annual Report.

In 2023, the BSC met quarterly and discussed several topics related to sustainability, including, but not limited to:

• Global themes relevant to DBS and our sustainability strategy. • Sustainability-related developments within DBS.

• Climate risk considerations including physical and transition risks, and enhancements to our ESG risk assessments.

• Client engagement on transition planning, as well as green and sustainable financing solutions.

• DBS' approach to disclosures, including adherence to new sustainability-andclimate-related reporting standards and frameworks.

The Board receives regular updates on key sustainability matters arising from these quarterly BSC meetings.

At DBS, we take an integrated approach to governance of sustainability and climate-related risks and opportunities. The Audit Committee (AC) and the Board Risk Management Committee (BRMC) also have oversight responsibilities for sustainability-related activities. In 2023, the AC received regular updates on sustainability-related disclosure requirements, while the BRMC discussed and reviewed climate considerations as part of the wider risk management processes.

Board statement on sustainability

"The Board has overall responsibility for the formulation of DBS' sustainability strategy. The Board provides oversight on DBS' sustainability agenda and directs its efforts in managing material ESG factors, guided by the objective to create long-term value by managing our business in a balanced and responsible way. In 2023, the Board Sustainability Committee (BSC) oversaw the update of our material ESG factors, as well as the continued progress to weave social and environmental factors into the fabric of our business, with a greater focus on climate-related matters."

DBS Group Board of Directors

Sustainability governance structure

Board of Directors

Local Sustainability Councils

(China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and Indonesia)

Executive management

At the management level, the Group Sustainability Council (GSC) oversees the execution of sustainability initiatives across the bank. The GSC is chaired by the Group CSO and comprises of senior managers from various business and support units. In 2023, the GSC met quarterly.

Given the increasing regulatory and legal relevance of ESG matters, Internal Audit and Legal & Compliance attend GSC meetings as observers. This supports a more comprehensive approach to risk management and regulatory compliance, and deeper ethical considerations as we navigate a dynamic and complex sustainability landscape.

The GSC - through the Chief Sustainability Office - coordinates and collaborates sustainability efforts with the five Local Sustainability Councils (LSCs) established in our core markets outside of Singapore (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and Indonesia). In addition to the GSC, the LSCs serve as executive forums for discussions and operational decision-making on sustainability matters.

In 2023, we established a cross-functional steering committee called Project Net Zero, which drives the operationalisation of our climate agenda across our net zero commitment, risk management and reporting. Sponsored by the Group Head of Institutional Banking, Group CRO and Group CSO, the steering committee is responsible for the implementation of multiple workstreams that involve different business and support units across the bank. The Project Net Zero Steering Committee provides quarterly updates to the BSC as one of the key standing agenda items.

At the start of 2023, the bank established a new ESG Credit Risk team under Risk Management Group along with a new management position - Head of ESG Credit Risk - to provide leadership and expertise to further strengthen our Climate and ESG risk management capabilities.

Embedding sustainability into performance management and remuneration

We use a balanced scorecard approach to measure how successful we are in serving our key stakeholders and executing our long-term strategy. Sustainability and climate-related targets are incorporated into our Group Scorecard and cascaded across the relevant units' scorecards, which are used to evaluate performance. Progress made against these targets is then used to determine the compensation for both our management and relevant executing teams, which in turn drives the overall management of sustainability performance across the bank.

Management targets cover key sustainability and climate- related themes such as:

• Governance, processes and reporting systems

• Climate progress under Project Net Zero

• Sustainable, green and social products, solutions and services

• Financial inclusion, financial literacy and digital inclusion • Regenerative technology and spaces

• Talent and people, including talent retention, diversity & inclusion and employee engagement

• Impact beyond banking through DBS Foundation

To further strengthen the governance of sustainability at DBS, in 2023 we conducted a holistic review of our sustainability governance processes. As a result, we have refined our approach including:

• Establishingan Environmental and Social Incident Management Guide to ensure timely and appropriate response to any reports of environmental and social incidents.

• Establishing a Consumer Banking Governance Guide for Sustainability Labelled Products and Services to ensure that a robust governance framework and internal

controls are in place for products and services, to which a sustainability label is attached.

• Uplifting our Sustainable Sourcing Principles (SSP)

to further promote the principles of restorative procurement amongst our suppliers.

Read more about "Our 2023 priorities", "Corporate governance" and "Remuneration report" in the Annual Report.

Elevating sustainability knowledge and skills

Sustainability is a dynamic field and the sustainability context within which we operate is constantly evolving. The Board receives regular briefings on sustainability matters, including from external sustainability experts. In addition, we ensure that our Board and Board committees stay informed about key developments and possess the knowledge and skills to advise on a wide spectrum of sustainability and climate- related risks and opportunities. Training on ESG matters is provided for all new Board members.

To further embed sustainability into every aspect of our business and build the capacity of our people, in 2023

we identified three key sustainability learning priorities and enhanced the DBS Sustainability Learning Campus, considering different target audiences within the bank.

For senior leaders

To further our senior management understanding of the business imperatives arising from sustainability risks and opportunities, and support the integration of ESG risks and opportunities into strategic decision making, we collaborated with Cambridge University's Institute for Sustainability Leadership to conduct a full day senior leadership workshop. The interactive workshop included cases on sustainability best practices and challenging dilemmas, with an emphasis on solving real world problems.

For all staff

To create greater understanding of the relevance of sustainability for the bank across all employees, a suite of sustainability-related training modules was launched in April 2023. The modules cover a variety of sustainability concepts, as well as communicating DBS' sustainability commitments and progress, and how everyone can participate in this journey.

Read more about our bank-wide learning programme in "Developing our people" on page 49.

For role-based specialised functions

To enable a more structured learning journey based on domain expertise, we have also customised several learning modules for specific departments within the banks. For example, to operationalise our net zero commitments and build competencies on climate-related risks and opportunities, we conducted climate activation training for our Relationship managers (RMs) and Credit Risk Managers (CRMs).

Read more about our specialised training in "Responsible financing" on page 16.

Stakeholder engagement

We have ongoing dialogue and closely collaborate with our key stakeholders, which helps us to continuously refine our business strategy and strengthens our ability to create long-term value.

We define our key stakeholders as those who are most impacted by our business activities, as well as those with the greatest ability to influence them. They include our investors, customers, employees, society, as well as regulators and policy makers. We proactively engage with these key stakeholders through a variety of channels to both understand and respond to their concerns and interests.

The outcomes of the stakeholder engagement inform our understanding of the ESG factors that are material to our business, which helps to define our strategic priorities and guide the development and implementation of our initiatives.