Gao's mission as deputy chief executive of Bank of China's Hong Kong branch is to turn around its investment banking efforts. Born in Xi'an in 1953, he's not your average Chinese banker. Speaking to Euromoney 30 minutes before a flight to Beijing, he does not prevaricate. Nor does he avoid difficult questions about Bank of China's investment bank, China Development Finance Corporation (CDFC). He pre-empts them. "For the past two weeks I've been more apologetic than at any time in my life about the quality of CDFC," he says. "It's a problem with the old system. The people need to be incentivized."
Everyone in Hong Kong has a bad story to tell about CDFC, though on the surface it has been an enormous success story. Since mid-1993 it has been involved in more "H"-share syndicates than anyone else, accounting for about 70% of all the funds raised by Chinese companies listing in Hong Kong. But competitors don't attribute this to the skill of the 14 corporate financiers working there but rather to the clout of the Bank of China, which is a lender to virtually every company that lists in the territory.