DBS Bank India named Rajat Verma as its Chief Executive Officer effective 1 March 2025, following formal approval from the Reserve Bank of India. Verma succeeds Surojit Shome, who stepped down from the role on 28 February 2025 after leading the Indian subsidiary through a period of substantial expansion and complex organisational change. The transition marks a new chapter for DBS Group's growing Indian franchise, one of the bank's designated priority markets in Asia.
Verma's appointment was confirmed in communications from the bank and reported by specialist financial news outlets. In addition to assuming the chief executive role in India, he simultaneously joined DBS's Group Management Committee, the bank's top strategic decision-making body, giving his appointment a significance that extends beyond the domestic Indian market and placing him among the senior leadership tier that shapes DBS Group's overall commercial agenda.
FROM INSTITUTIONAL BANKING HEAD TO CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Prior to assuming the chief executive role, Verma served as Head of the Institutional Banking Group at DBS India, a position that gave him direct oversight of the bank's corporate lending, trade finance, and transaction banking operations across the country. His background in institutional banking is expected to inform his approach to DBS India's commercial strategy, particularly given the bank's strong franchise among large Indian enterprises, public-sector undertakings, and multinational companies operating in the subcontinent.
The Institutional Banking Group has been a key driver of DBS India's revenue growth, and Verma's familiarity with that segment will allow him to maintain commercial momentum while simultaneously overseeing the broader franchise. DBS India now also serves retail and wealth management clients following the integration of Lakshmi Vilas Bank's operations, which significantly enlarged the subsidiary's deposit base, branch network, and customer reach across southern India in particular.
RBI approval is a statutory requirement for the appointment of chief executives at foreign bank subsidiaries operating in India, and the regulator's clearance of Verma's candidacy confirms the orderly and compliant nature of the succession process, providing continuity assurance for the bank's Indian customers and counterparties.
SHOME'S TENURE AND THE ROAD AHEAD
Surojit Shome's tenure as DBS Bank India CEO covered a transformative period for the subsidiary. Under his leadership, DBS India managed the integration of Lakshmi Vilas Bank following the RBI's directive to combine the institutions in late 2020, an exercise that brought a large retail deposit base into the DBS fold and expanded the bank's presence in markets it had not previously reached. Shome retired on 28 February 2025, having overseen the consolidation phase and the initial post-merger growth trajectory.
Verma will now be responsible for executing the next phase of DBS India's strategy, which centres on deepening penetration of retail and wealth management segments acquired through the Lakshmi Vilas Bank merger and continuing to grow the institutional banking franchise. India's banking market is undergoing rapid digital transformation, and DBS India's ability to leverage its parent group's technology capabilities — which have earned DBS recognition as a leading digital bank globally — will be central to Verma's strategic priorities.
DBS Group has designated India as one of its key growth markets, and Verma's inclusion in the Group Management Committee underscores the importance the parent places on its Indian operations as a contributor to group-level earnings and as a showcase for the DBS operating model in a large, complex emerging market.