Recipient of Sir Edward Youde Memorial Scholarships for Undergraduate Students in 1993/94
尤德爵士紀念基金本科生獎學金1993/94年得獎者
In Hong Kong, one’s degree seems to steer the course of one’s career. However, the recipient of Sir Edward Youde Memorial Scholarship for Undergraduate Students in 1993/94, the Head of Retail Distribution at Hang Seng Bank, Ms. Wendy Yuen believes that the essence of attending university is to cultivate personal values and independent thinking. Her experiences also remind us that we should never be restricted by our academic disciplines.
Having achieved outstanding results in the HKCEE public exam, Ms. Yuen was admitted to the Chinese University of Hong Kong through the “Provisional Acceptance Scheme”. To pursue her passion for cutting-edge technologies, she chose to major in Biochemistry and minor in Business Administration. After graduation, she also went to Cornell University for a master’s degree to broaden her horizons. Initially, she chose Nutrition and Bromatology as her field of study based on its relevance to her bachelor’s degree. However, she later opted for studying Agricultural Economics and delving into the commercial topics of the food industry.
Upon graduation, Ms. Yuen was offered a place at a consultancy firm. However, she decided to come back to Hong Kong to spend more time with her family. With the booming financial industry growing into one of Hong Kong’s pillar industries, Ms. Yuen decided to interview at some of the leading financial institutions in Hong Kong. After rounds of interviews and being one of the three candidates who stood out eventually, Hang Seng Bank, among all applications, first offered her the position as Management Trainee. Although Ms. Yuen frankly mentioned that she had little understanding about finance, she believed that the training from the programme would eventually help her to better understand her strengths in the context of finance, and subsequently accepted the offer from Hang Seng Bank.
During her multiple years at Hang Seng Bank, Ms. Yuen has served under different departments, with her most memorable experience coming from the time when she was assigned to the Retail Banking Department. By then, in her 20s, she was appointed as branch manager whose primary responsibilities were managing any matters at a branch, including leading a group of subordinates who were more experienced. This stretched her capabilities to ensure that the team works effectively and provides clients with high-quality services. Before she was assigned to other departments, Ms. Yuen was promoted as the manager of the Head Branch, becoming the first female employee under the age of 40 to hold this position within the banking industry. Afterwards, Ms. Yuen was assigned to the Wealth Management Department to work on product development, during which Ms. Yuen participated in the nascent development of structured products, allowing retail clients to invest in these products and thus diversify their portfolios. Since there were no corresponding products on the market at the time, the team had to participate in the drafting of product prospectuses, building up systems, sales flow from the very beginning. Looking back, she greatly valued her experience of developing new business, and believes that it enabled her to master the skills, courage and vision of leading the team to develop new products/ new markets in the future.
As the current Head of Retail Distribution, Ms. Yuen oversees the Bank’s overall retail network, including over 70 branches, 300 ATMs, and 4,000 subordinates. Impacted by the pandemic and social unrest, she frankly mentioned that the Bank’s retail business in the past two years has faced great challenges; in addition, the acceleration of digitalization also brings technological disruption to the current retail banking model. With that in mind, Ms. Yuen has led a series of reforms in the bank, which enabled banking services to be better integrated into our everyday lives through multiple channels, without further constraints on time and location. To achieve this aspiration, the bank has taken the initiative to integrate different technological applications, for instance, providing front-line officers with tablets, making it the first bank in the City to adopt “iAM Smart” in financial services, reducing waiting time for customers. Hang Seng Bank also leverages big data analytics to empower branch account managers to better understand their clients’ needs using a targeted approach to provide them with suitable services anytime and anywhere. In addition, branches also play a critical role in educating customers. She pointed out that regardless of how developed online services are, most clients are not aware of what the bank provides, which could be mitigated through incorporating digital ambassadors to introduce clients to the bank’s offerings in physical branches. In addition to several systematic services such as stock trading, which can be handled in a self-service manner, branches have also expanded to provide financial consulting services when dealing with more complicated or unprecedented situations.
Ms. Yuen’s excellent academic results during her undergraduate studies were highly appreciated by various scholarships. Among all, the Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fund is highly regarded by talents from all walks of life. Being recognized by the Fund was a great encouragement to Ms. Yuen, who eventually used the proceeds from multiple scholarships to pursue her postgraduate studies in the United States.
Ms. Yuen expressed her gratitude for the Bank’s nurturing over two decades, which helped her evolve from a graduate who knew little about finance to a supervisor of 4,000 talents. In recent years, Ms. Yuen has also led by example by actively participating in youth affairs, encouraging youngsters to take initiative to find their own directions instead of being restricted by their existing constraints.
在香港，一個人的學位好像已決定了他的職業。尤德爵士紀念基金本科生獎學金93/94年得獎者，恆生銀行分行網絡業務主管袁妙齡女士，卻認為大學的本質是培養獨立思考和價值觀的地方，並以自身的經歷來告誡大家不要受到學科的規範而限制了自己的選擇。
袁女士在中學時優異的會考成績，以「暫取生」的資格入讀香港中文大學。出於對當時嶄新科技的興趣，她選擇修讀生物化學，並副修工商管理。本科畢業後，為了拓展自己的視野，她選擇到美國康乃爾大學升讀碩士學位。起初，她選擇了跟自己本科有關的營養和食物科學，但在後來轉修農業經濟碩士，研究食品業的商業題目。
畢業後，袁女士受到當地一家顧問公司的招聘。但為了有更多的時間陪伴家人，她決定回流香港。在當時，金融業已經是香港的一大支柱產業，在她眾多的工作申請中，第一個收到的回覆就是恆生銀行的見習行政人員職位，經過多番的面試後成為其中脫穎而出的三人。袁女士坦言，自己在求學階段對金融一無所知，見習行政人員計劃使到她能接受公司的培訓，在過程中更了解自己的長處，所以她接受恆生銀行的聘書。
在恆生銀行工作多年，亦曾經在不同的部門工作，其中一個最令袁女士感到難忘的經歷，是她在剛剛完成見習行政人員計劃被派到零售銀行部門。當時，20多歲的她被委任為分行經理，需要管理分行的大小事情，包括帶領一班比她有經驗的下屬。如何使到整個團隊能有效運作，為客戶提供優質的服務成為了她的一大挑戰。在被委派至其他部門前，她晉升為總行的經理，是銀行史上第一位女性及40歲以下的員工擔任此職位。另外，她亦被指派到銀行的財富管理部門擔任產品開發。過程中，她參與到開展結構性產品分部，讓零售銀行的客戶都能投資結構性產品，分散投資組合。由於當時市場上沒有相應的產品，袁女士的團隊直接參與到系統和銷售流程的建立，乃至產品招股書的起草。她認為人生中能夠參與到開發新產品的經歷十分罕有，而這次經驗亦使她和團隊掌握在未來開發新產品或新市場時需要的技能、勇氣和眼界。
現時，她是銀行分行網絡業務主管，監察著銀行零售業務的整個網絡，包括超過70家分行及300多部自動櫃員機，轄下有約4000名下屬。她坦言，受到社會動盪及疫情史無前例的事件影響，過去2年零售業務面對重大挑戰；再加上數碼化的大趨勢下，零售銀行必需升級轉形。有鑑於此，袁女士正帶領銀行進行一系列的革新，使銀行服務透過多渠道的整合融入我們的生活，不再有時間和地域的限制。為此，銀行在科技的應用上早著先機，例如為前線職員配置平板電腦，成為香港香港首間銀行採用「智方便」於金融服務，減少客戶等待的時間；又或是利用大數據分析使分行的客戶經理能更了解客戶的需要，使客戶能隨時隨地得到適切的服務。服務以外，分行亦扮演著教育公眾的角色。她指出，無論銀上的線上服務如何發達，大部分的客戶都不清楚銀行提供甚麼服務，分行的數碼大使正正能向客戶介紹銀行不同的服務。總括而言，一些十分制度化的服務如股票買賣可以透過自助形式處理，但要處理一些較復雜或前所未見的事情時，分行就能夠提供財務諮詢的服務。
袁女士於就讀本科期間成績優異，因此她受到多個獎學金的青睞。而在眾多獎學金當中，尤德爵士紀念基金備受各界尊崇，獲得基金會的肯定是對當年的她來說是很大的鼓舞。她亦把眾多獎學金積存下來，成為她到美國升學時的經費。
二十多年來，她十分感激公司的栽培，使她從一名對金融一竅不通的畢業生成為了4000多人的主管。近年，她亦積極投身到青年事務，鼓勵年青人去主動尋找自己的方向，而不要受到現有框框的約束。