Markets Magazine
Hang Seng Bank Tops List of Strongest Lenders
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In June 1984, a three-man delegation of business leaders from Hong Kong made a pilgrimage to Beijing to meet with paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. One member of the group was Lee Quo-wei, then executive chairman of Hang Seng Bank Ltd., creator of the Hang Seng Index and one of the most prominent financial institutions in the territory.
The group spent an hour with Deng in the Great Hall of the People, telling him that in the ongoing negotiations regarding the handover of Hong Kong to China, scheduled for 1997, the territory needed assurances that Beijing wouldn’t undermine its thriving free-market economy.