Less than a month after her appointment in Brunei, Lai Pei Si, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) Brunei's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) shared that she is already deeply ecstatic on her appointment and is fully geared towards expanding SCB's franchise in Brunei. Speaking to the Bulletin during an interview at her office in SCB Brunei's Headquarters in Bandar Seri Begawan, she also accentuated the bank's commitment in people development and in living with the bank's brand promise 'Here For Good' by not just focusing on its business development but also in business sustainability through many areas of corporate responsibility programmes.
Pei Sei, a mother of four children hailing from Malaysia joined SCB Brunei earlier this month, replaced outgoing CEO Danny Quah. Prior to her appointment, Pei Si held the position as General Manager for Sales & Service in Singapore and South East Asia. With 16 years of extensive experience in international banking, she held various posts in SCB Singapore throughout her career, giving her vast exposure in many business functions within the bank including frontline, relationship management, strategies, wealth management, distribution and sales and service.
When asked about her stay in Brunei so far she said her appointment here came at the right time. "Brunei is a nice place to be in, it's a more relaxed environment and coming in with my family, it's definitely the right choice for me to give the best for my family and my career," she said.
On her view about the difference in looking after the Brunei market, she said that she is excited to be looking after various business functions in Brunei. "Back in Singapore I was overlooking the distribution area while here, there's a lot more business lines I am responsible for. The geographical difference and the sheer market size is also one differentiation from what I had in Singapore. Overall we know want to deliver and we know what we want to do here in Brunei," she said.
The Bulletin asked Pei Si on her plans and strategies in taking SCB Brunei into a journey forward in the banking sector in Brunei in the short and long term following its years of resounding success here and also asked her on the bank's direction and business focus. "We are enjoying great success here so far as SCB Brunei is one of SCB's most profitable franchise in South East Asia. It's a very good piece of business and the business is in excellent shape and liquidity position. When I met the team, I saw a great opportunity to work in hand with them and grow it even more,"she said. She also said it's been a good year for SCB Brunei so far and they are continuously diversifying to cater for its customer's needs.
She shared that she and the team would like to focus on five areas this time, which is being the employer of choice, growing its Premium Banking/Wealth Management portfolio, embarking on their Business Banking journey, to be able to differentiate sales and services and upholding their brand promise.
On the Ministry Of Finance (MOF) and FID (Financial Institution Division)'s rules in curbing excessive personal lending back in 2005 and the Credit Card Directive implemented back in 2010, the Bulletin asked Pei Si if these rulings has shifted much of the bank's business segment focus and how it affected businesses in those segments. The Bulletin also asked her views on the Brunei Government's recent call and emphasis for a 'savings culture' for its people and for banks to concentrate more on wealth management and financial planning. In answering this, she said that SCB Brunei and she is strongly in support of the initiatives from the Government. "It's a great move in enhancing people to save more for their future needs and prevent excessive borrowing which may lead to bad debts," she said.
SCB Brunei is absolutely responsible in its lending policies and culture. "We have extremely robust and strong lending policies which helped us ensure that we are in the same direction with the Government." Pei Si also shared that in ensuring that its staff, customers and the public at large are well-aware of the need of financial planning, the bank has developed various financial literacy programs catered for Government agencies, private sectors, schools and the media as well. "We want to cultivate financial education quite extensively to our staff, customers and the community. We have customer events on financial market updates and financial planning from time to time, to educate our customers further and we will have more columns in the newspapers talking about the markets, investment strategies and all this, comprehensive from end to end." She added.
"I am pleased to share that our business has been well diversified over the years, we are not only focused on a segments such as credit cards and personal loans but we have also been there in ensuring our business banking and premium banking segments are growing. We have a very good deposit base, and are poised to grow further.. we are also continuously identifying other growth areas and I am confident that this will be a good year," she added.
On the business banking segment, she revealed that their opportunities are tremendous now as they have increased their presence in more areas such as Kuala Belait and has also grown its number of Relationship Managers in this segment.
The Bulletin also asked Pei Si for her advice about investment strategies that Bruneians should go for and her comment on get-rich quick schemes which has generated millions of dollars of losses for many Bruneians in recent times. "In Brunei's context, it's all about knowing and understanding the investment advice you have been given.Sou should also actively seek information from professionals and from the people you trust." She said.
Pei Si said people need to know what to invest in. "Every good professional will be able to make you understand that in investment, there is always risks. When the risk is higher, the returns can be potentially higher while in a low risk investment, the return might be possibly lower." She advised. (source : brunei-online.com)