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SCMP Reporter

IF there is one banker who personifies good old-fashioned values and prudent decision-making, it must be Sir Quo-wei Lee.

    His distinguished face, adorned with thick black spectacles, widely recognisable by customers and the banking community, is synonymous with the bank he has served for almost five decades - the 61-year-old Hang Seng Bank.

  With his well-established reputation in the territory, a long list of directorships, honorary degrees and titles, no one would believe that he was a humble cable clerk when he joined the bank 48 years ago.

  Equipped with a good level of English as a St Joseph Secondary School student, he was involved in translation work and other external affairs.

    He became chairman of the bank in 1983 and consultant to the board of HSBC Holdings.

  His modest beginnings and his words of advice resonate in the biographies of other successful businessmen in Hong Kong.

   He says devotion and prudence are the keys to success in the banking sector.

    'The bank takes in the life savings of customers and we have a social responsibility to handle the deposit with care,' he said.

   'Unlike property developers, they are investing shareholders' funds only.'   Indeed, Hang Seng Bank's prudent management has been reflected by its low loan-to-deposit ratio, negligible default rate and consistent profit growth.

  'If a bank does not lean on the conservative side, bad debt problems would crop up in times of economic adversity,' he said in a paternalistic, yet sincere manner.

  No doubt he has seen and experienced the worst of the bad times, periods when the prudence and solidity of the bank helped to instil confidence in a panic-stricken public.

  He cited the incident in 1965 when the bank was forced to sell half of its shares as the most difficult and saddest moment of his career.

  He single-handedly concluded the deal in one day and sold 51 per cent of the bank's stake to HSBC to salvage Hang Seng from liquidity problems.

  'I had a really heavy heart at that time,' he recalled.

  But he never regretted that decision, stressing that Hong Kong's economy stabilised because of the rescue package, and he took comfort in his decision to sell to a local bank instead of a foreign one.

  'We lifted up to the social responsibility [factor] as a major bank in town,' he said.

  What makes Sir Quo-wei so admired and well-known is that he is not merely a banker.

   His allegiance is split between shareholders and depositors.

  His idea of civil duty extends far beyond taking good care of depositors' money to supporting educational and medical services in the community.

  Having his secondary education interrupted by World War II, he became a staunch voluntary worker in the field of education.

  He is chairman of the Council of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Li Po Chun United World College of the University of Hong Kong and the Hang Seng School of Commerce.

  Apart from education, he chairs the Hong Kong Heart Foundation, and is the vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Tuberculosis Chest and Heart Diseases Association, not to mention his continuous financial support for the Community Chest, which he helped to establish.

   His 'casual' support of the Chest is widely seen in the 'Dress Down Day' publicity.

  Although he is often in the limelight, he is in fact shy of publicity. His often-quoted motto is: 'Talk less and work more.'       He has served on both the legislative and executive councils, leaving his mark in Hong Kong' political history.

   He also left highly appraised marks in the securities industry by chairing the disaster-stricken stock exchange in 1987.

  His chairmanship led to the exchange getting back on its feet after a four-day closure and the arrest of the former chairman, Ronald Li Fook-shiu.



Prudent policy reaps rewards for Sir Quo-wei