Jackson: How far in advance do you formulate your IT strategy; and how agile are such plans to market changes?


Leung: My IT strategy is based on a three years cycle and is also based on the changes in business demands. For longer term planning, the projects are normally larger and take longer to implement, e.g. data centres, settlement systems and trading system redesign. These major projects normally take up to 50 per cent of my IT budget and the remaining budget is there to handle business demands which can change according to the market and business development direction.


Jackson: According to industry analysts, the top technology trends facing the financial services sector in Asia include virtualisation, cloud computing, biometric authentication and next generation firewalls. What are your views on this; and why?


Leung: I assume most of the companies see actual benefits by studying or implementing virtualisation and cloud computing. The other two subjects are important IT security matters, however they don't affect the bottom line as much. Within the virtualisation and cloud computing arena, it's easier to do both in-house instead of externally, particularly for the financial services industry. My personal opinion is that virtualisation is easier and simpler to implement and adopt. Cloud computing needs suitable applications and the set-up can be quite complex. Bank of China International (BOCI) has implemented both technologies in-house and I know the other global investment banks have also done work in these two areas already; the only difference is to what extent they have used these technologies.


Jackson: What are your views on the potential of these technologies within BOCI’s IT mandate?


Leung: As mentioned above, we have already been using virtualisation and cloud computing in our internal IT infrastructure. Our objectives are to save cost, response quickly to customer needs and BCP purposes. The other two security related topics, will likely be studied in the next year or two. 


Jackson: As Head of BOCI’s Global Information Technology Division can you share with us some of the IT developments we can expect to see from BOCI in 2010/2011?


Leung: Our focus is on enhancing our trading and settlement systems. On the infrastructure side of the business, we are focused on our data centre and networking design area. We are also going to spend quite a bit of our IT budget in supporting our Private Bank business.


Jackson: After many years supporting Institutional Investors, BOCI has recently made a move into the Private Banking market. What impact has this had on your IT strategy?


Leung: The impact is quite significant as the technology needs in the banking area are different from the trading side. Since Private Banking is regulated by the MA instead of the SEC, the compliance and risk monitoring requirements vary.  I am trying to leverage as much as I can, but there are many systems and requirements which are specific for Private Banking. In terms of resources, I have hired people who have Private Banking or banking system experience to the IT team. However, in the long run, I think I can leverage these different resources. The impact of the Private Banking development to our original strategic IT plan has made me request increased funding and human resources to support the Private Banking side.


Jackson: BOCI’s server farms in Hong Kong comprise over 600 servers in at least five data centres. How do you manage the sheer volume of data and still ensure speedy, secure and accurate transactions?


Leung: This is why we are use virtualisation and cloud computing technology, and at the same time we are undertaking a data centre consolidation project to streamline the support structure of all these servers and data storage centres. These projects have been going on for about a year now; I expect this will continue for another 12-18 months before we can put a stop to the projects.


Jackson: With mobile technology and social media gaining significant mileage across the Asian financial services sector. How do you envisage the financial services sector taking advantage of these new channels?


Leung: At the moment we are using at the stage of catering to the basic needs of the mobile users such as off-site email access, remote computing platforms, etc. Since I do have a lot of major projects in the application development and infrastructure area, I am not planning to expand my IT project scope to cover the mobile technology area for now. Perhaps in 2011/2012 time frame I will come back to mobile technology and make some serious proposals.


Jackson: You have mentioned in the past that green IT has ‘great cost implications and therefore makes perfect business sense’. Is green IT a trend that you see increasing across the Asian financial services industry?


Leung: First of all, green IT is not only a symbolic element for a corporation to deploy; it has material advantages such as lowering electricity costs. Some simple firm-wide habit changes can also obtain reasonable results, e.g. front and back printing set as a default, reminding people to switch off their monitors, using video conferencing instead of face-to-face meetings, etc. I think going forward when new technology comes out that can highlight the benefit of cost impact; it will certainly help push green IT in more organisations.


Jackson: Automating business rules for corporate governance is critical for any bank the size of BOCI. How do you implement such systems; and how can you eliminate risk in the light of the recent global crisis?


Leung: Even in our company, not all the business and financial data is consolidated and automated, therefore, there are still a number of manual steps in risk monitoring. In my IT strategic plan, one major theme is to centralise the data management because without such centralised data repository, it is very difficult to build any application on top of the necessary data. Having said that, building a firm-wide data warehouse and firm-wide risk monitoring system is quite time consuming. Our approach is to agree on a framework of the final picture, then start building each component as smaller blocks. At the end, we will be able to put them back to together for a firm-wide use. This is a one of the most difficult projects I have to deal with.


Jackson: What keeps you motivated in your job – is it the technology, BOCI or the sector?


Leung: Many things indeed affect my satisfaction in my job. My current role allows me to try out ideas which I could not do in a larger, global organisation. Knowing that my decisions affect the products and services we deliver and help the firm move forward is one of the major factors. It's just like proving to those who did not believe in me that they were wrong. This alone helps to push me day-after-day to continue to make my organisation a stronger one.


Jackson: Every IT leader, particularly at your level, has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours?


Leung: I think for every IT professional, their career path starting from being a junior staff member and growing into a senior manager has many interesting stories. I think mine is that I have had the opportunity to touch on a majority of IT’s technical areas, which has allowed me to build-up experience. The changes in my career (i.e. evolving from a developer to a system administration; or from an engineer to a manager) have been the most significant turning points and most memorable aspects of my career.