50 Years of Asia: Alan Smith
9 May, 201950 Years of Asia: Nestor Tan, BDO Unibank
9 May, 2019Euromoney, May 9 2019
Read the full article here: https://www.euromoney.com/article/b1f9h2r5y7d2bd/teh-hong-piow-an-exhilarating-adventure
Teh Hong Piow has been in Malaysian banking longer than there has been a Malaysia.
“I will never forget August 6, 1966, when Public Bank officially commenced business in Kuala Lumpur,” he says.
It started out in a three-storey building; today its 36-storey office headquarters oversees 265 branches nationwide. It has never not been profitable; having crossed a billion ringgit profit for the first time in 2000, it increased that figure sevenfold by 2017.
“Starting a bank, by any measure, is daunting,” he says. But even back then he had built a strong career at OCBC in Singapore and Malayan Banking, a forerunner of today’s Maybank. “I was not totally venturing into the unknown. For me, it was an exhilarating adventure from the beginning.”
Why launch a bank? “I was torn between a successful career and starting all over again,” he says. “But the pull was strong to realize my dream, to stretch my potential, to venture into what I saw as a blue ocean while addressing the needs of the public for banking services.
“I made sure I did my homework and was very careful to first establish a good business network as the bank’s support structure.”
A strong team helped. “I would also like to believe that luck favours the prepared.”
Full article: https://www.euromoney.com/article/b1f9h2r5y7d2bd/teh-hong-piow-an-exhilarating-adventure?copyrightInfo=true
