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Enoch Yiu

Hang Seng Bank will get its first female chief executive when HSBC's Margaret Leung Ko May-yee is seconded to the subsidiary in May to replace retiring Raymond Or Ching-fai,   sources said.
Mrs Leung, 56, HSBC's general manager and global co-head of commercial banking, would succeed Mr Or and  become the bank's first female chief executive in the lender's 75-year history, the sources said.
Hang Seng is 62 per cent owned by HSBC Holdings, which has often seconded senior managers to head its subsidiary.
The promotion will be the second 'first' for Mrs Leung. In 2005, she became the first Chinese woman in HSBC's 143-year history to become a group general manager.  
In her current role, she is responsible for HSBC's relationship with all middle-market corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises in the Asia-Pacific and  Middle East markets.
Mrs Leung joined the bank in 1978. She graduated in 1975 from the University of Hong Kong with a bachelor's degree in economics, accounting and business administration. 
She is married with two daughters.
Analysts believe her strong commercial background and client network were the reasons HSBC assigned her to take the top job at Hang Seng. 
Mrs Leung is also an independent non-executive director of blue-chip company Swire Pacific.  
Mr Or, 60, would retire  as vice-chairman and chief executive of Hang Seng after the bank's annual general meeting, the source said.
He has held the position  since May 2005, when he took over from Vincent Cheng Hoi-chuen, who is now an executive director of HSBC.
 Mr Or is still a general manager of HSBC but the sources said he would also retire from that position in May.  
It is believed  Mrs Leung, like Mr Or, will retain her position as general manager at HSBC.
A spokesman for Hang Seng had no comment on the reshuffle last night. A senior staff of Hang Seng said the appointment of Mrs Leung was a surprise  since the bank  had not made any internal announcement.
He said there should be no big  change in direction since Mrs Leung and Mr Or were veteran bankers who were both trained and brought over  from HSBC.
'They have similar backgrounds and I do not think the management team would have problems working with Mrs Leung,' the staffer said.
Sources said the management reshuffle  would be announced on Monday when both banks  released   their results for last year.
Louis Tse Ming-kwong, a director of VC Brokerage, said Mr Or's retirement and Mrs Leung's appointment should not affect the operations of Hang Seng.
'A big lender like Hang Seng has a good succession plan so it will not be affected by individual changes,' Mr Tse said.
He said  under Mr Or's leadership, Hang Seng expanded on the mainland substantially.
'Mr Or has taken a prudent approach to managing Hang Seng, which prevented the lender from being exposed to any risky products related to US subprime mortgages,' he said.
 'This has allowed the bank to cope with the global financial crisis well.'
Mr Or began his career as a management trainee with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp, the Asia-Pacific unit of HSBC, in 1972 after graduating with a degree in economics and psychology from the University of Hong Kong.



Margaret Leung to head Hang Seng