Jimmie Wong is the CEO, Managing Director and Founder of Credit Intelligence (ASX:CI1), one of the leading diversified debt restructuring and personal insolvency management businesses within the credit funding sector operating in Hong Kong. Credit Intelligence’s main business model includes the provision of bankruptcy administration services and Individual Voluntary Arrangement proposal consultancy, implementation services and credit funding for corporate and individuals.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
I was born in Hong Kong and studied law in University of Hong Kong from 1983-1987. I started my legal career in Hong Kong since 1987. Asian financial crisis badly hit Hong Kong economy from 1997. SARS pandemic outbreak in 2003 further aggravated the impact. From 2002, I started to focus in personal debt restructuring service in my law firm helping people to solve their serious debt problem, rescuing about 9,000 Hongkongers (up to year 2009) from bankruptcy and reduced suicide rates from avoiding debt. In 2004, I was appointed as trustee in bankruptcy serving all the banks and financial institutions to manage over 12,000 personal bankruptcy cases in Hong Kong till today. In 2018, I set up Credit Intelligence (“CI1”) as a corporation to handle the above two businesses outside of my law firm. I then embarked on my career as CEO of CI1.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
CI1 was listed on the ASX in May 2018 by RTO. I was appointed as CEO while also being the largest shareholder. I did a lot of advertising in Hong Kong from 2002 promoting our personal debt restructuring business through traditional media like TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and advertising on buses and taxis. It enabled us to gain the lion share of the market from 2002 to 2009 amidst the peak era of such business in Hong Kong.

From 2002, CI1 has been the largest personal debt management company in Hong Kong. Total number of cases has exceeded 22,000 thereby allowing CI1 to earn substantial profits. We recovered billions of Hong Kong dollars for the creditors in Hong Kong from the debtors by monthly repayments over 4 to 12 years tenor on average. We handled more than USD 10 billion portfolio as non-performing loans for the creditors in Hong Kong (including about 5,000 family homes). We deployed our own proprietary IT system to manage such large number of cases in the most cost-efficient manner, which is the key to winning our dominance as a market leader in Hong Kong since 2002.

In 2019, CI1 has since acquired 60% of two successful lending businesses in Singapore. I expect high growth in coming years with the experienced team members in Singapore.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
Our Hong Kong business is very lucky to be unaffected by the virus. Our 30-over staff are able to continue working on-site between three offices on different floors within the same building. We communicate to the debtors and the creditors via telephone, email, and WhatsApp. We would avoid unnecessary meetings inside office. Our Singapore business has been slightly affected by the virus for the last few weeks but I anticipate the impact will be minimal, as mentioned in the recent ASX announcement.

Personally, I will try to stay at home or remain in the office until the virus threat is over. Social distancing is very crucial to keep us safe. I also avoid public transport and use private cars whenever possible.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
The mission of CI1 is to assist people from personal debt issues, saving their livelihood and family homes from bank foreclosure in some cases too. It is a very meaningful and exciting business to me. It also helps mitigate the risks that banks and the society face as a whole, indirectly creating social harmony as well.

How do you measure success?
In my opinion, success is not purely measured through monetary terms. Creating job opportunities and solving cases for my clients (debtors and creditors) has given me a greater feeling of success than making money.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
He or she must be a great leader with good foresight of the market conditions, while able to build and lead a strong team. Diligence and hard work are equally essential.

What is your favourite book?
“The Warren Buffett Stock Portfolio“ – Below is my personal book review:
Which company to invest in? When to invest? What to look for before investing? These are the most common questions which are asked by any investor. What could be more fascinating than to learn all this from Warren Buffett himself? Formulating investing strategies by looking out for the ‘right and logical indicators’, understanding the importance of doing fundamental research before investing is all the main contents of this read.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
Asia is full of business opportunities with many quality places to visit and cuisines to try. Being born and raised in Asia while surviving several financial crises, I am proud to call Asia my home both on the personal and business front.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Credit Intelligence Website: https://www.ci1.com.au/

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