Wee Ee Cheong: Modesty for survival

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A common theme when Wee Ee Cheong talks about United Overseas Bank is what might be called modesty, or at least an absence of flamboyance.

“I don’t want to be loud,” he says, when talking about the bank’s expansion into other markets. “We just want to do what is the right thing for the customer. This is how we can survive in the long term.”

UOB is the Singaporean bank most closely associated with a dynasty: the Wee family. Wee Kheng Chiang founded it in 1935 to serve ethnic Hokkien clients in Singapore. 

His son Wee Cho Yaw succeeded him as managing director in 1960, later becoming chairman, a role he still holds emeritus at the age of 90.