In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

The scenes at Bank of East Asia's branches today are strikingly similar to the situation when Bank of East Asia joined forces with several Hong Kong banks to exclude it and forced customers to choose between two options.

At that time, under this malicious suppression, the customers of Bank of East Asia fell into extreme panic.

They were afraid that the security of their funds would be affected and that they would be blacklisted by other banks, so they flocked to bank branches to queue up to withdraw cash. For a time, a bank run swept in like a surging tide, plunging Bank of East Asia into an unprecedented crisis.

Lin Haoran also took this opportunity to completely privatize the Bank of East Asia.

Today, Bank of East Asia is once again facing a similar "bustling" scene, with long queues forming at all major business outlets.

However, this time, the customers queuing outside the bank were not there to withdraw cash, but were scrambling to make deposits.

Faced with the tempting high returns, customers have long forgotten the so-called "blacklisting" by the Hong Kong Banking Association.

For them, tangible benefits are what matters most.

For those citizens who deposit money, the market share of Bank of East Asia is constantly rising, and the safety factor is also rising accordingly.

In this situation, why should we worry?

At this moment, all branches of Bank of East Asia were busy.

Lin Haoran stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows on the high floor of the Bank of East Asia's headquarters building, overlooking the bustling crowd on the street below. The line stretched beyond the street, and he couldn't help but curl up a happy smile.

Everyone in the queue had a bag, some big, some small, but Lin Haoran knew that these people's bags were filled with cash!

In this era, although inter-bank transfers are not impossible, the procedures are cumbersome and the arrival time is slow. In addition, only a small number of banks such as Huifeng Bank, Hengsheng Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank have opened this service. For most ordinary citizens, they are more accustomed to handling business with cash, and they feel at ease this way.

Therefore, even though the deposit business is so popular nowadays, they are still willing to take the trouble to queue up with cash.

Looking at the scene of people queuing up with cash in their hands, Lin Haoran felt a little emotional.

Previously, Bank of East Asia lost the ordinary customer market due to the unfair competition of "choose one of two", and this time he wants to take it back.

Not only that, he wants more!

Previously, Bank of East Asia lost more than 3 billion Hong Kong dollars in savings funds. I wonder how much it can get this time?

Lin Haoran became a little excited.

Cui Zilong would call him from time to time to report on the current situation of major banks.

Therefore, at this moment, he is fully aware of the current situation.

By noon, strong foreign banks such as Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays Bank, American Express Bank, Credit Suisse, Citibank and Mitsubishi Bank of Japan all issued announcements to increase bank deposit interest rates.

However, they did not raise the deposit interest rate to 5% like the Bank of East Asia, but instead followed the example of the Bank of East Asia and raised the one-year and five-year deposit interest rates to 3.5% and 3.8% respectively.

In this way, although capital outflow cannot be avoided, it can also stabilize a portion of customers who do not intend to transfer all their funds to Bank of East Asia.

Moreover, with the exception of Standard Chartered Bank, the business of these foreign banks in Hong Kong does not rely mainly on deposits from ordinary customers, but rather on high value-added areas such as large-scale corporate financing, international financial trade settlement, and high-end wealth management.

Therefore, the interest rate war launched by Lin Haoran did not have much impact on these foreign banks.

Those most affected are the local large, medium and small banks, as well as foreign banks such as Bank of China and Standard Chartered Bank that are more dependent on deposit business.

Especially those small and medium-sized banks, let alone keeping up with the deposit interest of Bank of East Asia, they don’t even have the courage to keep up with the 3.5% and 3.8% of Huifeng Bank.

However, not having the courage to keep up means that your funds will continue to flow away.

Some customers, even during the term of a fixed deposit, would rather give up the interest that has already been generated, withdraw their deposits early, and transfer the funds to Bank of East Asia in order to obtain higher interest.

One can imagine how attractive the interest rate on fixed deposits of Bank of East Asia is.

A deposit interest rate of 5% is an extremely competitive figure, not to mention in Hong Kong at that time, even in the mainland in the future.

In the current landscape of Hong Kong's financial market, the ridiculously high fixed deposit interest rate of Bank of East Asia is like a huge magnet, constantly attracting funds from all directions.

"Boss, I have something to report." Just as Lin Haoran was leisurely looking at the long queue downstairs, Dashan knocked on the door and walked in.

"Well, you say." Lin Haoran came back to his senses, turned around and looked at the mountain.

In fact, he is still very satisfied with Dashan's performance during this period.

He was particularly satisfied with the execution ability.

However, Lin Haoran felt that Dashan was still lacking in keen insight into the financial market and strategic planning. These were the key factors that made Dashan unsuitable to serve as the long-term head of Bank of East Asia.

Of course, before the real successor of Bank of East Asia arrives, Dashan is still his most capable assistant in Bank of East Asia.

If, in the future, he could successfully invite the founder of Hengsheng Bank, Ho Sin Hang, to become the chairman of Bank of East Asia, he would not mind letting Dashan continue to be the president, that is, his position would remain unchanged, but he would just become the second in command.

"According to feedback from the sales staff at our branches, many customers who come to deposit money have told our sales staff that they encountered delays by the bank sales staff at the banks where they originally deposited their money. Some sales staff even deliberately made things difficult and refused to cooperate in processing cash withdrawals in an attempt to prevent customers from transferring funds to our Bank of East Asia," Dashan reported.

Lin Haoran nodded. These were all expected.

After all, no bank can sit idly by and watch its customers leave in large numbers.

"So how are the new customers in our major business outlets doing?" Lin Haoran asked.

"There are long queues and our sales staff are overwhelmed because there are too many banks in Hong Kong. Even if those banks try their best to prevent the loss of customers, even if only a small number of customers from so many banks are lost and gathered in our Bank of East Asia, it will be a considerable scale.

At present, the number of new customers is showing a steady upward trend, and the source of customers is getting wider and wider, especially from Huifeng Bank, many of whom have flowed into our Bank of East Asia!" Dashan's eyes showed excitement.

Huifeng Bank, the overlord of Hong Kong's financial world.

Who could have imagined that under their operation, the overlord of Hong Kong's financial world was actually sucked away by them.

With so many customers, this is undoubtedly a powerful blow to the authority of Huifeng Bank.

"Well, that is to say, the obstruction of those banks has not affected our Bank of East Asia, right!" Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Yes, there is no impact at the moment. There are long queues in our business halls. Their intervention actually prevents our business halls from getting too crowded and causing the situation to get out of control. From a certain perspective, it has become an opportunity for us to promote ourselves and attract more customers.

Customers see that our bank has responded in an orderly manner and our services remain efficient, and their trust in us has deepened," Dashan hastily added.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. After all, the Bank of East Asia now has too few branches. The business processing is slow because of too few branches, and customers have to wait too long.

Although this has alleviated some of the pressure to a certain extent due to other banks "blocking and diverting", it is not a long-term solution in the long run.

Although the salespersons in all major business outlets have improved their deposit handling services and opened a large number of business windows, there are still too few outlets after all. No matter how many more outlets are added, it is difficult to meet the rapidly increasing customer demand.

Unfortunately, the time for branch expansion is too short. Although they have planned to increase the number of branches to 30 or even 40 within the next month, the plan has only been implemented for less than ten days. The new branches are still under intensive preparation and construction, and it is difficult for them to be put into use in the short term to share the business pressure of existing branches.

Nowadays, even if we are in a hurry, we can only advance the construction of outlets step by step, and at the same time find other ways to alleviate the current business pressure.

On the other side, at the headquarters of Huifeng Bank, Shen Bi’s office.

At this moment, in the office, several crumpled intelligence materials and business analysis reports were scattered on the floor. Shen Bi had a gloomy face, his hands folded in front of his chest, pacing back and forth in the office, and the carpet under his feet was slightly dented by his leather shoes.

"This move by Bank of East Asia is simply pushing us into a dead end. It has completely disrupted our plan to acquire small and medium-sized enterprises. Not only that, we ourselves are now constantly facing the dilemma of losing customers and outflow of funds." Shen Bi frowned, his eyes full of anger and anxiety.

From last night to noon today, he has held several high-level meetings in succession to discuss how to respond to the challenges from Bank of East Asia.

But every meeting failed to come up with an effective solution.

In the past, Huifeng Bank had never faced such a difficult situation no matter what competitors it faced.

Even if it failed in the acquisition of Royal Bank of Scotland, it was just a failed acquisition and the loss caused to Huifeng Bank itself was not that great.

In the past, most opponents were either weak or had a single strategy, and Huifeng Bank could easily suppress them with just a little effort.

But this time, the counterattack of Bank of East Asia seemed to have hit the weak spot of Huifeng Bank, leaving them unable to do anything.

In fact, he has experienced this feeling of powerlessness towards Lin Haoran again and again.

"This Lin Haoran is really the nemesis of our Huifeng Bank. No, it should be said that he is the nemesis of our British enterprises!" When Shen Bi thought of the fate of British enterprises such as Jardine Matheson, Hong Kong Electric Group, Ching Chau Cement, and Hong Kong Telephone, his anger grew stronger. His hands clenched unconsciously, and his knuckles turned white due to the force.

He understood that if he could not come up with a countermeasure as soon as possible, the dominant position of Huifeng Bank in Hong Kong's financial world would be in jeopardy.

Huifeng Bank could also raise its interest rate to 5% to compete with Bank of East Asia, but he knew that the board of directors would definitely not agree.

After all, this has already made Huifeng Bank do a loss-making business. With the slowdown in the volume of Huifeng Bank's largest business, mortgage business, Huifeng Bank's capital pool is actually quite sufficient.

However, cash lying in the bank means that the bank is increasing its costs every day because it has to pay interest on customer deposits, etc.

If the deposit interest rate is raised sharply to 5%, the profit margin will be extremely compressed, and the bank may even be unable to make ends meet, which is extremely detrimental to the long-term development of Huifeng Bank.

The most important thing is that deposit interest is long-term, not short-term.

Once this opening is made, Huifeng Bank will need to pay high interest costs every year until the end of the contract. This is undoubtedly a heavy burden that will drag Huifeng Bank into a long-term negative profit dilemma and may even affect its performance in the capital market and investor confidence.

Then, he can forget about becoming the chairman of the board of directors of Huifeng Bank.

"We can't just sit here and wait for death." Shen Bi stopped abruptly, walked quickly to the desk, picked up the phone and called Governor Mai Lihao.

"Mr. Governor, the Bank of East Asia's move has had a huge impact on Hong Kong's financial industry. I hope you can intervene.

They have seriously disrupted the normal order of Hong Kong's financial market by raising deposit interest rates, which is an unfair competition method. Many small and medium-sized banks are facing a huge survival crisis. If this continues, Hong Kong's financial stability will be seriously threatened."

As soon as the call was connected, Shen Bi couldn't wait to complain to MacLehose, trying to put the Bank of East Asia at the center of public opinion and supervision, and seek the governor's help to reverse the situation.

In the Governor's Mansion, Mai Lihao couldn't help but curl his lips when he heard what Shen Bi said.

If the other party was not the chairman of the board of directors of Huifeng Bank, Mai Lihao would have ridiculed him long ago.

The whole of Hong Kong knows that the first to adopt such unfair competition means as raising deposit interest rates was their Hui Feng Bank!
If Shen Bi had not given a speech through the Hong Kong Channel in the afternoon, attempting to use high interest rates to reap the small and medium-sized banks in Hong Kong, would Lin Haoran have issued a response announcement on behalf of the Bank of East Asia in the evening to increase deposit interest rates, igniting this financial war?
Now, Bank of East Asia is just giving the other party a taste of its own medicine, but Huifeng Bank is getting restless and is trying to put the blame on Bank of East Asia. It is really ridiculous.

When Shen Bi announced this plan, the Governor's Office did not make any statement, but was already dissatisfied with Huifeng Bank in its heart.

After all, the prosperity of Hong Kong's financial market today is inseparable from the efforts of Mr. MacLehose during his ten-year term.

It can be said that MacLehose has made a great contribution to Hong Kong becoming one of the world's three major financial centers.

However, Huifeng Bank arbitrarily raised interest rates to a level that small and medium-sized banks could not afford, attempting to reap the market through unfair competition. This undoubtedly undermined the financial stability that he had worked so hard to build over the years.

Naturally, Mai Lihao would not be easily swayed by Shen Bi's one-sided words.

However, as the Governor of Hong Kong, MacLehose could not completely ignore Shen Bi's face and the status of the Bank of Hong Kong in the financial community of Hong Kong.

He cleared his throat and said in a calm but dignified tone: "Mr. Shen Bi, Hong Kong's financial market has always been a free market. As long as banks operate within the legal and compliant framework, the government generally does not intervene too much.

Bank of East Asia's increase in deposit interest rates is also part of their business strategy, and there is currently no conclusive evidence that they have engaged in unfair competition.

However, I will pay close attention to the development of Hong Kong's financial market to ensure the stable development of the market."

Mai Lihao's meaning was very clear, and they did not intend to interfere for the time being.

In fact, Mai Lihao is very clear that given the current situation in Hong Kong's financial sector, intervention is definitely necessary, otherwise Hong Kong's financial industry will really collapse.

However, the situation is still under control, so MacLehose decided not to intervene for the time being. Firstly, he could suppress the Bank of East Asia, which had no regard for the Governor's Office; secondly, he could observe the final outcome of the financial game between the Bank of East Asia and the Bank of East Asia, and see in which direction it would develop in a free market environment.

This will be of great reference value for his subsequent formulation of Hong Kong's financial policies and maintenance of financial market stability.

Moreover, during this period of time, in order to deal with the Bank of East Asia, Huifeng Bank has done many things that the Governor's Office felt were excessive, and every time the Governor's Office had to clean up the mess. Mai Lihao has already accumulated a lot of resentment in his heart.

This time, he planned to take the opportunity to let Huifeng Bank suffer a lesson and let it know that the Governor's Office would not be at its mercy.

Do you really think that the Governor's Office is specifically for serving your Huifeng Bank?
After hearing this, Shen Bi felt angry, but he did not dare to lose his temper in front of the Governor.

He already knew MacLehose's attitude and understood that his plan to seek government intervention had failed.

Since we can't get it from the Governor's Office

After hanging up the phone, Shen Bi was so angry that he threw the phone in his hand hard on the table. The phone bounced on the table a few times and finally fell to the side.

What a mistake. What a mistake.

Originally, they thought that harvesting the deposit funds of Hong Kong's small and medium-sized banks would be an easy task. At that time, not only would they be able to widen the gap between themselves and the Bank of East Asia again, but they would also be able to shock the entire Hong Kong financial community in one fell swoop and let the entire Hong Kong financial community know who is the boss of the Hong Kong financial community.

However, the entire senior team of Huifeng Bank never thought that Lin Haoran and Bank of East Asia would be so radical as to directly raise the deposit interest rate to 5%.

Shen Bi sat dejectedly on the chair, supporting his head with his hands, his eyes full of regret and unwillingness.

He understood that this time, Huifeng Bank was in an unprecedented predicament, and all of this was due to their underestimation of the strength of the counterattack of Bank of East Asia.

……

In Hong Kong today, all major banks are extremely busy. No matter which bank it is, there are always queues, and this situation continues until five o'clock in the afternoon.

This time is the normal closing time of major banks.

At this moment, the sales clerks at all major bank branches breathed a sigh of relief.

However, Bank of East Asia did not close its business hours, but temporarily extended its business hours from the normal 5pm to 7pm.

Because both Lin Haoran and Dashan knew that this situation might not last long.

Therefore, they must take advantage of this golden period to absorb as much customer funds as possible and further consolidate and expand Bank of East Asia's share in Hong Kong's financial market.

As night falls and the lights come on, all major branches of Bank of East Asia are still brightly lit and crowded with people.

Customers are still queuing up, waiting patiently to handle their business.

The sales clerks were busy non-stop, checking information, entering the system, printing receipts. Every action was done skillfully and quickly, striving to complete the business for customers in the shortest time possible.

It is said that the business hours extend to 7 o'clock in the evening, but in fact all major business outlets close at around 8 o'clock.

Under normal circumstances, these sales clerks would definitely complain about suddenly having to work overtime, but this time the bank directly paid the overtime sales clerks three times the hourly wage, so all the complaints disappeared without a trace.

Who can resist money?
Lin Haoran has been at the head office of Bank of East Asia almost the entire day today. Today is the first day of the interest rate increase, and he is very curious about what the final results will be.

After having a simple dinner in the bank’s cafeteria, Lin Haoran returned to the office.

He had no idea how much deposit funds the 20 branches could absorb after being busy all day and extending their working hours under various circumstances.

After all, everyone's deposit amount is different, some are more and some are less, and this is impossible to predict.

"Boss, I just finished counting the data and I'm reporting to you that our new deposit amount today has exceeded HK$1 billion, specifically HK$1,138,580,000."

Dashan walked steadily into the office with an expression of uncontrollable joy and reported to Lin Haoran: "Among them, there are 87 customers with deposits exceeding HK$ million, and the highest deposited customer is HK$ million."

In other words, today alone, it has harvested more than HK$1 billion of market share from other banks!
Lin Haoran nodded slightly. This number was within his expectations, but when he actually heard it, he couldn't help but feel excited.

Not bad, very good, this is already a very exaggerated number.

"Okay, well done!" Lin Haoran laughed.

"Unfortunately, we still don't have enough branches. When each business outlet closes, there are still many customers waiting in line. But working overtime all the time is not a solution. Our employees have limited energy, and their bodies can't handle it for a long time."

Dashan continued, his eyes showing both pride in today's achievements and deep regret for the current insufficient number of branches to meet customer needs: "In order to make the trip worthwhile for these customers who have waited in line for a long time, we have issued priority service cards to these customers.

They will be given priority to handle business tomorrow with their cards. This is a little compensation and sincerity from us to our customers. We hope that these potential customers will be more satisfied with our services and more willing to choose Bank of East Asia in the future."

"Well, this way of handling it is very good! It is very thoughtful." Lin Haoran patted Dashan on the shoulder and gave his affirmation.

However, this also made him think about a problem.

At present, although high interest rates are a good way to attract customers, he also knows that if this continues for a long time, it will lead to the collapse of Hong Kong's financial system and many banks will face the risk of bankruptcy.

Therefore, this method will definitely not last long, and the Governor's Office will intervene.

Therefore, what needs to be solved now is how to maximize the advantages of Bank of East Asia and gain more funds during this window period.

By then, even if the Governor's Office intervened, these clients whose fate had already been decided would have been firmly held by the Bank of East Asia and would not be easily lost.

Therefore, how to further tap the market potential and attract more funds when the construction of the new branch of Bank of East Asia has not yet been fully completed and the number of outlets is limited has become a key issue that Lin Haoran urgently needs to solve.

He wants the financial business of enterprises, and he also wants the financial market for ordinary customers!

This matter needs to be resolved as soon as possible!
Since he couldn't think of a solution, he decided to gather everyone's wisdom and called Ma Shimin, Burton, Chen Shoulin and other generals to come over to work together to find a solution. (End of this chapter)