Always striving for excellence

Hong Kong has been through a tough year with the social unrest, geopolitics, and the pandemic. The pandemic has also brought great uncertainties in multiple industries, especially in the banking sector.

Amidst the uncertainties, Standard Chartered Bank had to make prompt decisions and do what is best for the health and safety of their staff and clients. “The challenge for us leaders was how can we provide a more flexible working arrangement that supports our employees’ needs based on their individual circumstances,” said Mary Huen, CEO, Hong Kong, Standard Chartered. “As a bank committed to be ‘Here for good’, we believe it is our responsibility to support our clients as well as the community,” she added, as the bank has also helped assist people and many local businesses struggling to make it against the challenging backdrop.

For this, the bank was named as the Bank of the Year for 2020. In an interview with Hong Kong Business, Huen shares how the bank was able to thrive as they conquered the challenges brought upon by the crises.

Response to the pandemic

These unprecedented times ask for robust scenario planning from leaders, allowing them to respond regardless of the situation. “During these exceptional times, we all need to demonstrate exceptional leadership. To do this requires a mix of core leadership skills and human skills,” said Huen, noting three main points that leaders should consider in their pandemic response— Always Be Crisis-ready (ABC), empathy for people and staff, and institutionalising a mindset of continuous improvement and learning.

Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong showed that they were able to do these as their crisis management team, along with various business and supporting teams, worked tirelessly to monitor the situation closely, provide timely reports and implemented precautionary measures and contact tracing to ensure the safety of the workplace and that critical operations and frontline staff felt protected.

Beyond supporting their employees, Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong also rolled out various relief measures to help individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), and corporate clients. These measures included mortgage principal payment holiday, principal moratorium, trade finance loan extension, relief cash loans for eligible applicants, fee waivers for credit card late payments and local fund transfers.

Furthermore, they supported corporate and multinational clients in their digital transition so they could quickly adapt and continue servicing their stakeholders.

“We’ve always been working actively on building our social capital. This ties back to our brand promise ‘Here for good’,” said Huen.

PHILOSOPHY FAST FACTS

“Standard Chartered Bank is committed to promoting economic and social development in the markets they serve, doing so sustainably and equitably in line with their purpose and three valued behaviours: ‘Never settle’, ‘Better together’ and ‘Do the right thing.” • The history of Standard Chartered in Hong Kong dates back to 1859 • It is one of the city’s three noteissuing banks and serves as one of the three rotating Chairman Banks of the Hong Kong Association of

Banks • The bank provides a wide range of banking services to retail and corporate clients, and has over 70 branches and over 200 ATMs across

Hong Kong • Standard Chartered Hong Kong is the largest profit contributor to the

Group • Mox, its majority-owned virtual bank, launched in 2020 • Standard Chartered PLC is listed on the London and Hong Kong stock exchanges

This page: 1) QR Cash Cardless Withdrawal; 2) The Mox team; 3) Hong Kong management team showing their support for Standard Chartered Group’s COVID-19 Global Charitable Fund

Opposite page: The University of Hong Kong – Standard Chartered Foundation FinTech Academy Plaque Unveiling Ceremony

The bank gave back to the community as they donated personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning supplies for 100,000 underprivileged families and donated HK$40m to help subsidise rent for families living in subdivided units.

Globally, Standard Chartered Bank launched a COVID-19 relief fund to support emergency relief and economic recovery in the most disadvantaged communities, as well as provide financing for corporates providing goods and services to fight COVID-19.

Investing in a digital future

The COVID-19 pandemic was more than a health crisis—it is also a game changer, accelerating digital adoption across all industries. Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong clearly plans to stay ahead of the game. The bank secured a virtual bank license in 2019 and recently launched its virtual bank, Mox, to drive financial inclusion and innovation, as well as deliver a different experience to a new pool of digital-savvy clients.

Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong is also the first bank to roll out “QR Cash” in early 2019, where clients can withdraw cash from ATMs by scanning a QR code with their mobile phone. The absence of the need for a traditional physical card proved to be very useful especially during the pandemic where clients prefer to use contactless payments and facilities.

The bank also introduced My RM, which allows clients to connect with their relationship managers remotely, and made online mutual fund sales available on the mobile banking app. Further, it quickly scaled up VPN capacity to enable more than half of its staff to work and collaborate remotely and continue providing quality service to clients.

Because of these, Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong was able to deploy the necessary tools to provide clients access to their services amidst the pandemic whilst reducing face-to-face transactions at their branches.

Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong also partnered with University of Hong Kong and launched Fintech Academy to boost fintech research and innovation in Hong Kong.

Resilience amidst crisis

The pandemic made the bank realise how important it is to build teams that are agile, resilient and collaborative. Hong Kong has gone through ups and downs over the years, but it has shown tremendous resilience and emerged stronger each time. Huen is confident that, despite the short-term uncertainties, Hong Kong will continue to be a great place for doing business and a competitive international financial centre.

“To stay relevant post-COVID, we need to step up, continue to innovate and pick up 21st century skills, and these include the ability to engage remote teams, handle uncertainty, and build a learning culture,” concludes Huen.