DBS Bank – one of Singapore’s top major banks – is reportedly investing resources towards widening the scope of its cryptocurrency exchange out of the existing investor base of institutional clients. 

Specifically, Piyush Gupta – Head of DBS Bank – reportedly revealed regarding the bank’s cryptocurrency voyages at the Q4 2021 earnings call on February 14th, disclosing that the company will shift its concentration towards methods to additionally scale its crypto exchange operations this year. 

During the call, Gupta reportedly received inquiries regarding if DBS Bank managed to complete a roadmap for introducing digital asset trading to retail investors.

Although the CEO did not offer a straight-to-the-point response, he still reportedly revealed that DBS Bank completed some initial work related to its effort for widening the scope of its existing investor base. 

“We’ve started doing the work on seeing how we get in a sensible way, take it out and expand it beyond the current investor base. And that includes making sure we appropriately think about things like potential fraud and others.”

He further dropped a few hints DBS Bank needs to finalize that work – with the expected timeline for completion being by the end of this year – if it wants to move forward with retail support for its crypto exchange. 

“I think you’re looking more like the end of the year before we can actually take something to market.” 

Per Gupta, DBS Bank additionally has expectations of putting in extensive efforts to boost its crypto trading platform either in the first half or in the first three quarters of 2022. 

The bank particularly has plans down its pipeline to “make the access to the digital assets a lot more convenient”, via introducing instant online deposits and transactions, with the reduced involvement of banking intermediaries.