A Singaporean In Australia

Asia's safest

There is always a first time in everything. Floods in Orchard Road, MRT tunnel excursions, foreign workers having sex and killing maids in water tanks. Suddenly Singapore has became a vibrant country that PM Lee Hsien Loong envisioned. No one could say Singapore is a boring place anymore.

Indeed, we are buzzing with even more activities these days. Barely after removing the cable ties holding the dislodged 'claws' in some MRT tunnels, it's time for the banking sector to give Singaporeans a thrill ride. This time hosted by who else but Asia's safest bank Development Bank of Singapore (DBS).

Mei Foo Safe Deposits Incident 2004

8 years ago, DBS Bank (Hong Kong) at Mei Foo branch sent 83 safe deposit boxes that contained valuables of customers to the scrapyard and got them crushed. 36 boxes were recovered with valuables inside badly mutilated. The bank offered at least HK$150,000 of compensation to livid affected customers.

Unauthorised withdrawals, Singapore. 2012

That was small change though, compared to its latest debacle. The unauthorised withdrawals incident that affect a number of Singaporeans would surely inflict a heavy dent in DBS's reputation and coffers. After all, they claimed to be the safest bank in Asia. Why didn't they market themselves to be the most flexible bank, or the most friendly staff? Now - so malu.

These fraudulent transactions will cost them at least SGD$200,000. That is probably the tip of the iceberg. At this moment, the bank appeared to be clueless about what happened and the real extent of monetary damage.

New direction for DBS

Part of it will go to marketing budget of course, changing their slogon to something more less fallible like "Your neighborhood bank" or something. After all 2 safety breaches in less than a decade isn't very convincing as Asia Safest Bank. They have 2 more years to complete a glorious hat-tick in 10 years.

Root cause: Complacent citizens

The root cause of this incident would be of course ... Singaporeans. Our complacency is insidious. It once led to the escape of Mas Selamat. It caused clogged drains that led to massive flood damages along Orchard Road 50 years ago. This latest fraud will no doubt be another evil child of our complacency. It's time to reflect, brothers and sisters.

Meanwhile, I heard the Internet Banking server is extremely slow after news of this incident broke out. I need to check if my money is still there too. Can you guys relax, don't crash the server ya?