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Raymond Ma

THE LONG-SERVING head of Wing Lung Bank, one of Hong Kong's oldest indigenous financial institutions, is actually a mechanical engineer by training.

But after more than 20 years at the bank's helm, chairman, executive director and chief executive Michael Wu Po-ko has no regrets about abandoning his original calling.

He sees his career change as a family duty, just as his decision to study mechanical engineering at university.

At that time, Mr Wu was not particularly interested in pistons or mechanical timepieces, and had wanted to study business. But his family, including his father, felt engineering was more practical.

'My parents, maybe because they had a misconception or they were conservative, told me I shouldn't study business,' he said.

'Instead, they said I should stick to something a bit more practical, such as engineering, accountancy or medicine.

'So I decided on engineering. The idea was that if [the banking] business wasn't good, there would be someone in another field who could help the family. Times were very uncertain back then.'

The irony is that after 14 years working outside the banking sector, the filial Mr Wu was called upon in 1978 to return home and run his family's bank - the line of work he had originally been discouraged from pursuing. To do so, he had to quit his job as an engineer with the Ministry of Environment in Canada.

'When my father retired, he wanted to have one of his children remain with the bank,' Mr Wu said.

'We are a very traditional family. So when they needed me to come back, I did just that. I neither resisted nor had any particular feelings about it.'

Tomorrow, Mr Wu will help the bank, established by his father Wu Yee-sun, celebrate its 70th anniversary.

Like its founding family, the bank is considered one of the more conservative in Hong Kong.

At the bank's headquarters in Central, big-ticket items that one would expect to grace every bank boardroom - the long, polished oak table and posh leather chairs - are conspicuously absent.

In their place are a retro 70s-style, chunky, laminated plywood table - in a shade too dark to be considered modern - and red leather-lined chairs.

Unlike other banks, Wing Lung holds few media events aside from its interim and annual result announcements. Even its birthday celebrations tomorrow  will be low-key.

'Our bank likes to stick to a very low profile,' a spokesperson said.

'Even though this year is our anniversary, there will not be any big parties planned to celebrate it. We have put up a banner at our office, but that's about it.'

Its annual report, usually adorned with pictures of bonsai plants cultivated by Mr Wu's father, reads more like a Confucian text: 'An ancient scholar said: 'If there are no good forerunner-leaders, things of importance, however nice, cannot be developed. If there are no good followers to further develop them, such things cannot be handed down to prosperity.' '

In an age when banks are pushing consumers to apply for new credit cards and jack up their spending limits year after year, Wing Lung's motto is 'Progress with prudence, service with sincerity'.

Wing Lung is also a survivor in a merciless field that demands banks innovate, merge or die.

Over the years, the bank has been tightly controlled by the Wu family, whose members still own 43 per cent of the financial institution collectively.

In contrast, the members of Bank of East Asia's founding family - the Lis - together own less than 10 per cent of the bank.

Bank of Canton, another small Hong Kong bank that celebrated its 90th birthday last year, was sold to Security Pacific National Bank in 1988 and is now a subsidiary of Bank of America.

Wing Hang Bank, a slightly younger bank that was established 66 years ago, is 20 per cent owned by the Fung and Ho families.

While Wing Lung has survived over the years, has it prospered?

It is one of the smallest banks in Hong Kong in terms of retail branch network, with only 35 outlets across the city. HSBC, by comparison, has more than 200.

As of December 2001, Wing Lung's profits stood at HK$846 million. It employs about 1,200 staff and has assets of only HK$64 billion - far short of the US$20 billion required to expand on the mainland, where most Hong Kong banks are now looking to for growth.

Wing Lung's size has prompted speculation that it may merge with Wing Hang in order to make it a more attractive acquisition target for bigger banks.

On this subject, Mr Wu said: 'At annual or interim result announcements, sometimes I am asked about this.

'Obviously, we will not go out of our way [to merge or be acquired], but we remain open-minded.

'We don't mind as long as it is good for the bank and the shareholders.'

Looking back over the years, Mr Wu said Wing Lung had to back away from its more traditional lines of business as it moved grudgingly with the times into new products and services such as consumer loans.

'Wing Lung started its life as a money exchanger. This used to be a very good business, but now it's too labour-intensive - the volume is great, but how much we earn from it is not quite as good,' he said.

'In the 60s and 70s everything was booming and everybody lived in harmony. Loan demand was very strong.

'[Loan demand] has shrunk in recent years. And while our focus used to be on commercial lending to sectors such as construction, we have had to move towards providing more consumer loans.

'This is very profitable but it also carries a higher level of bad debt.'

At 66, Mr Wu is fast approaching the threshold that would suggest a change in guard - perhaps to the next generation of the Wu family - is imminent.

Former chairman Wu Jieh-yee, a brother of the bank's founder, retired in 1982 at the age of 71. Wu Yee-sun himself stepped down in 1976 at the age of 72.

In response to questions about his own retirement, Mr Wu, who is usually calm and soft-spoken, suddenly beams and nods his head, saying it will come 'very soon'.

He goes on to suggest that those next entrusted to run the bank will, like himself, be asked to dutifully carry on the family tradition.

'My father and my uncle worked in the bank for a very long time. In future, a successor may also come from outside the banking sector, maybe management consultancy or merchant banking,' he said.

'They do not have to move up internally within Wing Lung, because these people will be able to see from a wider horizon.'

Biography

Michael Wu Po-ko

is chairman, executive director and chief executive of Wing Lung Bank, founded by his father, Wu Yee-sun, 70 years ago. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of New Brunswick in Canada in 1969, and held a number of engineering and scientific positions in Hong Kong and Canada. He returned home to join the bank in 1978. He was appointed an executive director in the same year and was elected vice-chairman in 1979.



Wing Lung moves with the times