The Faculty of Finance of CityU held an academic lecture in English in Room HG02, Ho Yin Convention Centre from 10:30 to 12:30 on the morning of 28 October 2019. The lecture covered two main topics, including "Wealth Management and Private Banking" delivered by Mr Vincent Wee, Managing Director of Wealth Management Department of Deutsche Bank AG, as well as "Investment Banking and Venture Capital Investment" delivered by Ms Caroline Kwong, Managing Director of The Global Value Investment Portfolio Management Pte Ltd. Both guest speakers shared their valuable insights with the teachers and students based on their practical work experience.

  Mr Vincent Wee was the first speaker. He introduced and compared the differences between corporate banking, commercial banking and retail banking, and inspired the teachers and students to consider how to transform banks from the perspective of value-chain. He mentioned that he once set up a private banking unit to provide customized services for certain customers and design relevant financial products. The key to the operation of modern banks lies in the ability to maintain the openness of banks and solve the "pain points", i.e. practical issues, of customers. When comparing the circumstances of international banks, he said that Swiss banks pay more attention to long-term investment while banks in Hong Kong focus more on transactions.

  Managing Director Wee suggested that students should continuously improve their critical thinking skills. First, they should be equipped with the ability to think independently and, in a better scenario, design a platform that can meet customers' demands in the financial sector; second, they should earnestly pursue financial knowledge; third, students should develop leadership qualities to foresee the future, train themselves an organizer, and actively participate in group activities and interact with others. The application of blockchain in digital currency was also mentioned in the seminar, and teachers and students actively participated in the discussion.

  As the second speaker, Managing Director Caroline Kwong presented merchant banking, a combination of banking business and consulting services. It provides customers with consulting services on finance, marketing, management and legal affairs. Consulting refers to the provision of consultation, guidance and services with a fee charge, which assists merchants in their business development and fund-raising. She elaborated on how she got involved in merchant banking herself as a person growing up in a family business, and explained the specific operations of investment by citing the commercial case the "Nanjing Railway", in which the funds were raised from investors through bond issuance, and were directly invested in the project. Investment risks and returns correspond to each other in such investment model. Managing Director Kwong then further introduced venture capital to teachers and students, where the key is whether those projects with urgent financing needs can actually be implemented. She pointed out that students must have relevant financial skills, and that whether one can succeed depends on the ability to achieve extraordinary results. Successful talents should possess curiosity, creativity and resilience. Later, students raised questions to Managing Director Kwong on how to cope with artificial intelligence. She said that even though artificial intelligence has the capability to operate machine, it will never replace the decision-making process of humans. She encouraged everyone to embrace the future of scientific and technological finance with confidence!

  The lecture concluded with the pleasant exchange and interaction between the teachers, students and guest speakers!