(Bloomberg) -- DBS Group Holdings Ltd.’s chief executive said its rich clients are becoming more active in trading, which will drive profits at Singapore’s largest lender this year.

“People are beginning to put risk on and take some of the money out of deposits into investments,” Chief Executive Officer Piyush Gupta said at a media briefing Thursday after the firm posted better-than-expected earnings. “People’s animal spirits are woken up.” 

Such momentum will help boost the bank’s non-interest income growth in its commercial book to mid-to-high teen percentage points for the year, he said. On Thursday, the bank reported a 47% surge its wealth management fees for the three months ended March 31, which contributed to a 15% profit gain to S$2.96 billion ($2.2 billion). 

Asked whether he wanted to expand the lender’s wealth franchise in India, where global firms from UBS Group AG to HSBC Holdings Plc are adding headcount, Gupta said his bank is looking at the Indian diaspora in offshore centers such as Singapore and Dubai. DBS is also scaling up its market for the so-called mass affluent on the subcontinent, he said, which typically refers to those with less than $1 million in assets.

“The only country in the world with domestic wealth management that is clearly profitable is the US,” Gupta said.

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