Q1: Reflecting on 2025, what were your bank’s major milestones from an operational perspective, and how did you achieve them? Conversely, what were the setbacks and challenges encountered along the way, and what measures were taken to surmount them? How have those lessons shaped your 2026 strategy?

In 2025, alongside major transformation initiatives, we successfully fostered a culture of simplification across the bank. Through collaboration and open feedback, we streamlined processes in several areas, resulting in notable gains in productivity and efficiency. Significant advancements were made in simplifying internal systems, account-opening procedures, client reporting, payments, pricing, and client services, all while maintaining robust controls. We have also enhanced our communication in situations where immediate resolution of pain points was not possible, ensuring greater transparency around our plans and strategy.

The insights gained in 2025 have directly informed our strategy for 2026. We remain focused on automation and further simplification, leveraging this year’s progress to scale our private bank and deliver enhanced value to clients, stakeholders, and operational teams. Continued improvements are planned as we pursue operational excellence.

Q2: As private banks invest in upgrading their KYC systems and scaling AI capabilities, how are you addressing the operational challenges of integrating these technologies while driving measurable KPIs in revenue growth and delivering hyper-personalised client experiences?

KYC is more than a compliance requirement. It’s the first and a key client engagement touchpoint. As we re-design our core onboarding and data platform as an end-to-end journey, we are bringing the front office, operations, and technology together to optimise client interactions. It is designed to simplify and digitise the experience, allowing clients and our teams to collaborate more easily on documentation, with better visibility on progress and fewer manual steps.

In 2025, we rolled out Wealth Intelligence, the bank’s proprietary AI-powered ecosystem, which enables our client-facing colleagues to access the comprehensive range of HSBC’s reports faster and more simply. Currently, the platform can analyse and summarise the bank’s research reports and external news feed, and it will be capable of screening and identifying suitable products for the bank’s wealth management teams to discuss investment options and asset allocation recommendations with clients. With AI adoption as one of our core strategic pillars for enhancing our client experience at scale, we will continue to leverage AI capabilities to give the front-office team more time to focus on direct client engagement.

Q3: The cost-to-income ratio is a key metric for assessing bank performance. What range do you consider optimal, and how is the bank managing the cost side—across investments, real estate, and other operating expenses—to maintain efficiency and competitiveness in the region?

While the cost-to-income ratio remains a critical metric we monitor closely, our primary focus is on building a robust platform for sustainable growth and scalability with the ambition to become the leading wealth manager in Asia. We follow a disciplined investment allocation process to optimise impact and leverage the broader HSBC Group platform where appropriate.

Delivering the best client experience is central to our approach, guiding our decisions and priorities. Given the many opportunities in our industry, prioritisation is essential. Accordingly, we regularly assess where to concentrate our efforts, ensuring we focus on where we are best positioned to succeed.