Hong Kong must do more to promote women, according to the city’s top female financial executives. While at the entry level the sector is filled with women, few have managed to climb to the top of the corporate ladder. As of 2018, the sector had 263,000 employees, or 7 per cent of the Hong Kong workforce, and made up 20 per cent of the city’s economy. And while 52 per cent of junior staff were women, only a third in management were female, according to a study by PwC. Women made up an even smaller number – 20 per cent – when it came to director level roles. Eighteen women chief executives (CEOs) at financial companies such as HSBC, Citibank and Standard Chartered came together informally in 2016 to arrange talks and other activities that would encourage more women to break the glass ceiling in the sector. On this International Women’s Day, regulatory changes, company and family support and flexible working arrangements were among key issues that needed to be addressed for this to happen, according to the Hong Kong financial industry’s 10 leading women executives. Laura Cha Shih May-lung, chairwoman, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) A lawyer by training, Cha is the first woman to chair Hong Kong’s stock exchange operator. She worked at the city’s securities regulator – the Securities and Futures Commission – before being invited to serve as the first woman vice-chair of the China Securities and Regulatory Commission from 2001 to 2004. “Throughout my career in financial services, I have never once considered gender as having any bearing on the performance of my job, or my ability to make positive and meaningful contributions to both business and community,” Cha said. HKEX operates the world’s third-largest stock market, capitalised at HK$54 trillion (US$7 trillion). Three out of its 13 strong board of directors are women, while 41 per cent of its staff are female. Women also make up 35 per cent of its senior management. In Hong Kong, however, only 14 per cent of major listed companies’ directors are women, lower than the United Kingdom’s 34 per cent and the United States’ 28 per cent. In January 2019, HKEX stipulated that all Hong Kong-listed companies must disclose their board diversity policies, making it a condition for initial public offerings (IPOs) four months later. “There is still much work to be done, and HKEX is committed to driving change in this regard, promoting and championing boardroom diversity and leadership,” Cha said. “We believe this is not a box-ticking exercise, but critical to good business.” Diana Cesar, CEO, HSBC Hong Kong Cesar’s career at HSBC began in 1999, in personal financial services. She worked her way up the ranks, through marketing, credit cards, consumer loans and the bank’s mortgage business, before her promotion in 2015 as chief executive of Hong Kong’s largest bank. She is the second woman to take up the top job. Moreover, about 30 per cent of the bank’s senior posts worldwide in 2020 were held by women, and it aims to raise that proportion to 35 per cent by 2025. In Hong Kong, 37.6 per cent of the bank’s senior executives are women. “At HSBC, we value differences,” Cesar said. “It is good for our business. It makes for a healthier culture.” Research shows that companies with gender diversity in their executive teams were 25 per cent more likely to be profitable than others, she said, adding that the bank’s recruitment, promotion and retention were “predicated on the principle of equal opportunity”. Angel Ng Yin-yee, CEO, Citi Hong Kong and Macau Ng became the first Chinese woman to head the Hong Kong office of the US bank in 2018, two decades after she first joined the lender in marketing and strategy. “We still have to break the taboo, to increase gender representation in the investment banking and markets divisions,” Ng said. She added that Citi had an equal number of male and female staff, and that 45.5 per cent of its middle and senior management jobs are held by women. “Financial services is actually ahead in terms of raising women’s representation in senior positions, as evident in the number of women CEOs in our industry,” she said. “But we want to do more.” Citi has specific development programmes for female staff at different levels to equip them to advance to the next level, Ng said. For retaining female talent, for instance, Citi Hong Kong has a programme that supports new mothers in returning to work. Mary Huen Wai-yi, CEO, Standard Chartered Hong Kong Huen held various positions over 29 years at Standard Chartered in retail banking and wealth management before her 2017 promotion to chief executive of its Hong Kong office. “When I first started my career in banking, I was often one of the few – if not the only – females in the room,” she said. The representation has improved three decades on, but women still make up a third of top roles in the financial services sector, Huen said. At Standard Chartered, they made up 36 per cent of its board members and 29.5 per cent of its senior executives, as of January. The bank, one of Hong Kong’s three currency issuers, wants to increase the number of women senior executives to 35 per cent by 2025. “Standard Chartered has done a lot to drive gender diversity at work and in the community, and I am positive that the banking sector will continue to put in place more policies to support women,” said Huen, who was also the chairwoman of Hong Kong Association of Banks in 2019. “This includes building pipelines for women in executive and non-executive roles, as well as introducing more flexible and family-friendly practices at work,” she added. Louisa Cheang Wai-wan, CEO, Hang Seng Bank Cheang’s career began in 1999, at Hang Seng’s parent, HSBC, in personal finance, marketing and retail banking. She was appointed vice-chairman and chief executive of Hang Seng Bank in 2017. The bank has Hong Kong’s highest representation of women leaders among retail lenders, with 53 per cent of its executive committee members being female. Cheang is the bank’s third female CEO, and the position has been continuously held by a woman since 2009. The bank will soon be chaired by a woman, when Irene Lee replaces Raymond Ch’ien upon his retirement. “Hong Kong still has a significant way to go,” Cheang said, pointing out that the representation of women as directors among the constituent stocks of the benchmark Hang Seng Index, at 14 per cent, lagged behind the 34 per cent for FTSE100 and 28 per cent for the S&P500. “Our approach to diversity is centred on creating an internal culture that is inclusive and built on systems of meritocracy. We view greater internal diversity as a way to drive growth and as an important business advantage.” Maaike Steinebach, general manager, Visa Hong Kong and Macau Steinebach, who was born in the Netherlands and grew up in Saudi Arabia, joined Visa in 2019 after a career at MeesPierson, ABN Amro, Fortis Bank and Commonwealth Bank. “Studies have shown that organisations with diversity in their leadership teams are more cognitively diverse than male-dominated leadership teams and, therefore, more adept at recognising opportunities and solving problems from different vantage points,” Steinebach said. “The challenge, as a leader of a financial technology company such as Visa, is to ensure that such diverse thoughts are consistently factored into our business strategy and decision-making.” The Fintech Association in Hong Kong supports female founders, while Visa also has a programme called “She’s Next Empowered by Visa” to provide funding and business networks to support women setting up their own businesses. Amy Lo, co-head of wealth management in Asia-Pacific, UBS Half of all directors overseeing UBS’s wealth management division in Hong Kong are women. They also make up 70 per cent of staff in the division. “I am delighted to say that UBS in Hong Kong has a relatively high percentage of women in senior positions,” Lo said. “While there is always room for improvement, I am confident that the glass ceiling is increasingly a thing of the past for women at UBS.” Hong Kong offers more opportunities for women than other markets, she said, adding that the availability of affordable domestic helpers can help mothers continue their careers. UBS also offers a flexible arrangement for working mothers. “My 30 years in the industry have convinced me that a diverse workforce not only attracts the best talent and promotes the right culture, but also taps a broader pool of knowledge, expertise and perspectives,” she said. Jessica Tan Sin-yin, co-CEO, Ping An Insurance (Group) Effective time-management and family support are critical success factors for Tan, who joined China’s largest insurer in 2013 from McKinsey, where the computer science graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was a global partner. “I’m grateful to my parents and husband, who have taken over the bulk of family duties during weekdays, which allowed me to travel and work overseas,” Tan said, adding that 48 per cent of the insurer’s staff are women, and that they made up 30 per cent of its senior management. “With my girls – I maximise weekends and holidays with them.” “It is helpful to have family support, or childcare support, so that women can choose to continue their work if they would like to,” she said, adding that Ping An has a policy to ensure the board’s representation is diverse in gender, age, culture, education and knowledge. “It would also help to have an open work environment, where men and women alike can share their commitments outside work and be supportive of one another, without being worried about being stigmatised,” she added. Lau Ka-shi, managing director and CEO, BCT Group Women make up 52 per cent of the staff and 44 per cent of management roles at BCT Group, which offers financial advisory services for Hong Kong’s Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) and other pension schemes. “Pensions are an important pillar of the social security and retirement protection system”, which is an industry most suited for women, Lau said. “Women need to be more visible in a corporation, not just for the sake of creating more equality, but also to help it live up to its corporate responsibilities and, in turn, ensuring the society it serves is inclusive and sustainable. “It is my mission to provide the next generation of young women with the resources necessary to playing an active role in shaping their future,” said the veteran pension and trustee expert. Winnie Wong, CEO, Asia Insurance Wong has over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry, having worked at Aon Risk Solutions Hong Kong and Macau, and Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance, before joining Asia Insurance in September 2016. “Insurance is definitely lagging behind banking in terms of gender equality, and most insurance chief executives and board members are still male,” she said, adding that Asia Insurance under the chairmanship of Hong Kong’s Executive Council member Bernard Chan had better female representation than the industry. Five of the insurer’s eight-member board are women, while 64 per cent of all its staff are female. The key to success for women in the insurance industry is having a “can-do” attitude and always improving themselves, Wong added.