The banker glanced at my slippers as I stepped into the meeting room.

Except for the slippers, I had done a bit of touching up before attending the interview. I hadn’t realized that opening a bank account could be so difficult until an online bank rejected my application for reasons I didn’t understand. They claimed the process would take just 5 minutes, but when I tried, it turned into 5 minutes plus a 30-day wait before they would speak to me again.

Yes, Alliance Bank actually gave me an interview just to open an account. The banker asked where my business premises were located and what I actually intended to do. I showed him my website, and I could tell he became a bit more comfortable, though he remained slightly skeptical.

The decision to let me open the account came three days later. During those three days, the bank was checking to see if I had any suspicious records.

This is 2026; money laundering and fraud are front and center in the news. Their job is to ensure I am not involved in any of that, so I couldn’t complain. They were simply doing their job as a responsible bank.

However, it is also their job to build relationships. You never know—one of these new customers could turn out to be the next 99 Speedmart or Penang Foodie. In the case of Penang Foodie, it started in an apartment with the founder making videos that nobody initially wanted to watch. After all, who wants to watch other people eat? You have to humor yourself a lot to believe that could be a viable business in 2016.

Perhaps to appease the banker, the company was initially called “Good People Venture”.

We good people, no tipu, ok?

Such is the beauty of Malaysia: normal but driven people can build wealth and succeed.

Group CEO Kellee Kam’s salary was 8.2 million in 2025. By comparison, his last drawn salary as RHB CEO was 5.3 million. The difference now is that his 2025 salary is tied directly to his performance in improving the bank. He will make it if the bank makes it.

He built his career at RHB, and during his younger days, he learned that banking has its seasons. There are seasons for expansion, and seasons when you need to watch the pennies just to survive. Last year, when the rights issue was executed, he noted that it was a season to expand.

The latest numbers prove he was right.

Here is the thing about the cost-to-income ratio: if income grows faster than costs (like salaries and IT), nobody complains—provided the CEO knows how to spend that money well. A leader needs to know how to hire the right people, what assets to buy, and how to motivate their team to hit the numbers. It is not an easy job. How do you cultivate a relationship with a young man who says he wants to build a business by making videos, and, most importantly, how do you know he will be able to pay you back?