Mr William Lam

From crisis to opportunity: a pragmatic approach

By : Eva Choy

FundingReach, founded by CityU alumnus Mr William Lam and some friends in 2017, serves as a fintech platform for automatic business credit analysis, background check and continuous monitoring services. The company quickly earned a leading position in the field with clients from both private and public sectors, and financial support from the Innovation and Technology Bureau and Cyberport.

Continuing learning to seize opportunities

Mr Lam has established his successful career by upgrading himself, seizing opportunities and achieving breakthroughs. In addition, he promotes collaboration between academic institutions and the fintech industry to achieve win-win situations.

Before setting up his company, Mr Lam worked as a senior executive at international financial companies. “I studied business management at CityU in the 1990s, taking courses on diverse subjects such as finance, operation management and international business,” he says.

CityU’s dual emphases on theories and practice have enabled him to acquire essential knowledge and broaden his vision, he adds.

“We now talk about integration between Hong Kong and the mainland and we often visit companies across the border. However, such visits were rare in my university days. My teacher took us to Zhuhai to visit a household appliance factory that had just started its small business then, but now it has an annual turnover of more than $100 billon. That visit made me understand that we should not neglect markets in the mainland while focusing on overseas markets in Europe and the US.”

After working in the financial industry for several years, Mr Lam studied for a law degree at the University of London to meet the needs of his professional life. Although balancing work and studies was tough, the experience was worthwhile. “I was then working in the corporate department with clients from both local and overseas corporations. Legal knowledge helped me understand global market regulations and identify opportunities for my clients.”

His hard work to upgrade himself paid off with a promotion, and soon after he joined a US-based bank, the 2008 global financial crisis broke out, forcing many of his colleagues to quit their jobs. However, Mr Lam decided to stay and further upgrade himself. He was later promoted to business head, the youngest person in that position for the company he was working for.

Transforming the banking sector

A few years ago, Mr Lam noticed that many industries had started to introduce new technology in response to structural changes. Automation was being adopted in the manufacturing, trading, logistics and services sectors while the use of big data and artificial intelligence was growing. As a result, factories began to hire fewer workers. Production costs subsequently fell drastically while efficiency improved significantly.

So why shouldn’t the banking industry follow suit? That’s when Mr Lam began to study how to apply fintech to the banking industry. He believed a lot of opportunities for the development of fintech in Hong Kong existed. FundingReach was therefore started to provide credit analysis and background check services.

Win-win for academics and industry

Due to the impact of Covid-19 on the job market, CityU plus alumni and employers launched the CityU CAReer Launch Scheme (CARLS) to help graduates find jobs. Mr Lam’s company joined the scheme and hired three CityU graduates.

“Besides academic performance, we consider employees’ attributes such as a passion for the industry, diligence and career and life objectives,” he says.

Mr William Lam After the fresh graduates had worked at his company for several weeks, Mr Lam found they had performed very well and were willing to learn. He thanks the CARLS career counsellors for offering good guidance and matching employers and graduates well.

Mr Lam suggests local universities and industry can enhance collaboration in more areas to fully utilise strengths since universities excel in obtaining funding and doing research, while industry has extensive practical experience.

“Collaboration enables academic institutions to integrate more practical elements into their curricula and help students adapt to the workplace. Moreover, corporations can recruit more professionals with related academic training. It’s a win-win situation for both sides,” he says.

Mr Lam updates the students on the course he teaches at a local university with the latest developments in fintech in Hong Kong and other places. His company also offers a summer course for senior secondary school students on fintech and the markets.

Facing an unprecedented social and economic challenge, Mr Lam remains positive. After all, volatile markets revive eventually. That’s why he encourages students to take every opportunity to equip themselves with new skills.

When the current climate improves, they will then be in a better position to seize any opportunity, he says.