Leveraging fintech during the COVID crisis

A different background

Until joining PayPal in early 2019, Wong had spent his entire career in traditional finance. He started at auto components and services group Johnson Controls in the US and Germany, before moving for more than a decade to GE, where he was employed across Asia, culminating as group Chief Financial Officer for Asean. “I’ve lived in 10 cities around the world and speak five languages, ”he says.

“I told my PayPal recruiter: ‘I’m finance-trained, not fintech’. But I was reassured it was a corporate job, with a primarily supervisory function and line specialists for the operational and technical sides.”

Singapore is, in fact, a nerve center for the global payments group. While a handful of big markets, such as Europe, are controlled from regional hubs, the city state is responsible for not just Asia, but also dozens of smaller markets that don’t slot into the regional structure.

“PayPal operates in about 200 markets, and Singapore being the international headquarters made me quite nervous. ‘I’m going to sit in Singapore and manage the world!”

Making the most of your network

When the crisis hit, Wong had to react fast: “We effectively had to shut the office for an entire year. People were working from home, getting very stressed and missing the traditional human contact of office life. I’ve always had a very people–centric management style. I believe firmly in being a ‘servant leader’. So I thought: What can I do? especially considering I was fresh in the job and barely knew some of my teams.”

“I started inviting colleagues to dinner at home on Friday nights, with my wife kindly cooking. The more relaxed atmosphere encouraged people to discuss their problems – and helped me to gain awareness of our challenges. Being people-centric has been absolutely essential.”

That mentality may have come from his background. Wong’s father was a schoolteacher, and he himself is passionate about volunteering and lifelong learning. “I was regional head of GE Volunteers, and I now head APAC Community Impact here at PayPal. My emphasis is on education, and I even do some teaching and mentoring myself (including mentoring a current IMD MBA student).”

Lifelong learning is a central part of PayPal’s employee-centric culture, which seeks to be supportive of its staff and collaborate in their career development. And democratizing learning is a key theme for Wong personally.

But who helped the boss himself during the crisis? “Our MBA class was relatively small, with just 90 students, and we’ve stayed in touch via WhatsApp groups. My group was heaven. You’d feel you were not alone dealing with the crisis and all the issues. The others had just the same problems. So we would exchange ideas and compare notes. It was a huge help.”

“Even 15 years after graduation, it’s still a very closely knit group. The seven of us who’re based in Singapore also meet regularly.”

Normality returning

With Singapore having mastered the pandemic relatively well and life inching back to normal, Wong has more time now for the future. “Fintech and Asia are very exciting,” he reflects. Regional markets still have immense scope to expand ecommerce further. And new technology shows no sign of easing up: “We see installment products and the rise of crypto as the two emerging segments in fintech.”

“The advent of new technology is very exciting, especially for the potential it offers for fraud protection. Cross-country checks can be done in just seconds. The technology allows us to do so many new things.”

Does he ever regret moving out of conventional finance into fintech? “No, not at all.”