Ebullient DBS Chief Executive Piyush Gupta was at his reassuring best when he addressed the top clients of the Singaporean bank at a recent briefing.
Having just returned from London where his technology embracing bank had picked up an award for the worlds best digital bank, Piyush Gupta told the 650 clients gathered in Singapore that the recent Brexit vote was nothing to panic about.
Despite the recent collapse of the British currency and the shutdown of several high profile funds, the DBS Chief Executive took a contrarian view of London's long term future as the leading financial hub in Europe and one of the key global banking centres.
Slip in a Dig at Indonesia's Aspirations
Gupta saw the U.K.'s vote as an opportunity as much as a problem and emphasised that the organisational structures and rule of law set up over decades by London would not be easy to replicate on mainland Europe. He did not discount that there would be short term volatility.
While on the subject of established financial hubs he also took the opportunity to slip in a dig at neighbour Indonesia's aspirations to becoming a financial hub when he said that it can take almost three hours to get from the airport to the Central Banking District (CBD).
