Rival Banks

He saves a sharp retort for rivals like OCBC Bank, whose CEO was recently quoted as saying that unlike DBS, it had deliberately refrained from selling structured products like Lehman Minibonds to the mass market.

'In hindsight, all of us should have known better,' he says. 'When DBS issued its preference shares, we made a decision to keep it to only institutional customers because we were concerned that the product may not be suitable for retail. I think we were criticised for that.'

Both OCBC Bank and UOB sold preference shares to retail investors, in the wake of DBS' refusal to.

'Today, corresponding issues are trading 10 to 15 per cent down, but no one's come back to vindicate us for the decision we made,' he notes.

Indeed, Mr Koh stiffens with pride when he talks about the way the bank has handled the High Notes crisis.

'You know, an event like this either tears the organisation apart or gels the team. I'm really extremely proud of the people in DBS,' he says.

'First of all, we have tried to deal with the issue in as open and transparent a manner as possible. We have held open forums for people to come. As far as I know, we are still the only ones to have done that.

'Many more of DBS' staff handle customers face-to-face and over the telephone. I can tell you that they've taken some abuse, and yet our people have remained calm throughout.'

He says the experience has brought people together more strongly than he has seen in the past three years.

'The thing I'm proudest of is that I observe a tenacity in our people in the face of the adversity that we are facing. I observe a degree of perseverance which I think can make us all proud.'

Still, the public backlash is a lesson not lost on DBS.

'People in Singapore hold DBS to a much higher standard of accountability. And we are deeply appreciative of the fact that there is this emotional commitment from the people of Singapore to DBS,' he says.

'We are just going to have to work extremely hard to re-earn their trust. We've taken a hit but we will overcome.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on November 12, 2008.