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Updating The Family Banking From 1905

1930s2

13 Jan 2009 – Kwong Lee Mortgage&Remittance Co. to Kwong Lee Bank

1940 picture: in Chinese jeckets – grandfatherLAM SongKee and granduncleLAM JiChiew with their families in Singapore.

Wikipedia stated Mr Lam Ting Yeu (supposedly LAM TinYue, my father) as the founder of the KwongLeeMortgage&Remittance Company some years and it is incorrect and now (2017) it has been corrected and edited. Will be traveling to Sarawak after the Chinese New Year to learn more and hopefully to take some pictures. My granduncle, LAM JiChiew was the founder of the Kwong LeeMortgage&RemittanceCompany in 1905, not LAM TinYue (2nd row 1st right sitting crossed-legs in a white suit), my father who was born in 1911.

Began its operations in 1905 in Kuching/KCH, Sarawak, under the name of KwongLeeMortgage&RemittanceCompany, it granted loans against the security of export commodities such as pepper, rubber&other indigenous products. It provided the services of remitting money of migrant Chinese to their families in SE-China.

1905 KwongLeeMortgage&RemittanceCompany, KCH,Sarawak/Borneo
1923 Sibu-branch/Borneo
1926 Singapore-branch/Singapore
1934  converted into a public company under the name KwongLeeBank 廣利銀行/KLB
1937 Sarikei-branch/Borneo
1966  KwongLeeBankLimited/KLB which was changed to KwongLeeBankBerhad/KLB 
1973 Binatang-branch/Borneo

7Apr2021: appreciations&thanks to nieceSK for informing me that there were 2 other KLB in JB/Malaysia (where she worked in the 1980s) and another one in KL/Malaysia which I have no idea that even they existed??

16May2021: tkx to cousinKarenLIM(1966)- oh and of course google brought me to yr blog instantly and I saw that bank cheque …. my mum wld be able to verify that the logo was designed on our dining table by my father … I vaguely remembered that ….. ah memories are so powerful, we need to make more of them! 

Do like the logo designed by uncleJohn LIM RuKhoon(1934-2019), quite ahead of his times and now I see where his only child&daughter cousinKaren got her designing skills from! Did not even know that there was a KLB logo, will need to talk to auntieNgor/AnnaCHAN(1940-2024)to ask her for more info.

May1982, KwongLeeBankBerhad was acquired by the MUI Group, a corporate group controlled by Malaysian business tycoon TanSriDatoKhooKayPeng. Exiting shareholders include OverseasChineseBankingCorpOCBC Bank (which acquired a stake in the bank in 1964) and members of the Lam family (relatives and descendants of the founder LAM JiChiew). KwongLe BankBerhad was renamed MalayanUnitedBankBerhad on 2Feb1983. Subsequently it was renamed MUI BankBhd. Under the MUI banner the bank grew from 11 branches (including Singapore) to 35branches.

3Jan1994, the HongLeongGroup/Malaysia acquired MUI BankBerhad through HongLeongCreditBerhad and renamed it as HongLeongBankBerhad/HLBB. The acquisition of MUI BankBerhad by HongLeongGroup/Malaysia (which is controlled by Malaysian business tycoon QUEK LengChan) followed shortly after an aborted takeover attempt of the MUI Group by another Malaysian tycoon TanSriDat VincentTanCheeYioun (through his vehicle BerjayaCorporation).

Thus HongLeongBank can claim that it started in 1905.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Leong_Bank

Bankers know that history is inflationary and that money is the last thing a wise man will hoard – Will Durant

13Dec2020: donated father’s LAM TinYue(1911-1996) old B/W photo albums (1920-1950s)+various original documents to SIN NationalLibraryBoard/NLB. Appreciations to MeiChenLEE&NLB-staff for taking care to preserve the LAM-Heritage for future generations who might have an interest – copyrights are still mine and NLB has been notified and they can be shared for research&educational purposes, NOT for monetary or for profit purposes.

22May2022: tkx to these interesting copies from auntieLAM KeiChan (LAM JiChiew’s branch), donated to NBL.

19Sep2025: could this be ~1923 Sibu-branch/Borneo? From uncleKhoon’s old B/W pix, it looks like it, tkx to cousinKaren for this share.

Found this old pix but have no clue which KLB branch or where or when??

Edited Fri19Sep2025: according to cousin Irene, this should be ~1937 Sarikei-first KLB-branch@WharfRd before moving to RepokRd,Sariket in 1973.

1958? KLB-WharfRd,Sariket/Borneo with uncleKhoon

1973: KLB-RepokRd,Sariket/Borneo with broLawrence in the beige-suit and uncleKhoon in the dark-suit next to him.

Aug1973: KLB-Binatang/Borneo with broLawrence&Mabel,auntieNgor,uncleKhoon in the middle; Karen the little girl in the white dress.

15Sep2025: appreciations with thanks to Karen for B/W pix of her father uncleKhoon who was in charge of the Sariket-KLB branch.

Present: Jalan KLB road in KCH,Sarawak/Borneo donated by the family.

29 thoughts on “Updating The Family Banking From 1905”

  1. may i know which one is MR Lam Ji Chiew?
    sitting on second row medium sitting wif white suit women??

    Reply

  2. Thank you for your interest and for stopping by. 2nd row from left-right, 5th person is LAM Ji CHiew (darker jacket), my paternal granduncle sitting next to LAM Song Kee, my paternal grandfather who is sitting next to the lady in white, my paternal grandmother, CHAN Swee Ngor

    Reply

  3. Hi Amy. I am Lam Kah Wai, son of Lam Shee Keen and grandson of Lam Kong Heng. My Grandpa told me bout Kwong Lee Bank story too.

    Reply

    • Hi LAM Kah Wai, thanks for stopping by. Apologies that I do not have the full details of the family tree. Would appreciate to know which branch of the family tree you stem from and where are you located?

      Reply

    • Hello Kah Wai, my sincere apologies but I am not familiar with the rest of my paternal grandfather’s siblings. I only have names for LAM SongKee’s & LAM JiChiew’s branches. Please ask your grandfather LAM KongHeng or your father LAM SheeKeen for the names for your branch and then we can join the family chart.

      I have also colour codes the different generations as it seems like many have not kept to the tradition with thee same generation names. Grandparents’ generation is RED, parents BLUE, yours and mine GREEN, my children ORANGE, my grandchildren PURPLE.

      Reply

  5. Hi Amy,
    While visiting my sister in Singapore last week, I was delighted to discover in her old photo album a rare photo of my father’s shop, Lim Heng Teck Co., at No.4 Wharf Road, Sarikei. The photo must have been taken in the late 1930’s, and we can see from the rooftop signage that the shop at No.5 Wharf Road was then occupied by Kwong Lee Bank Ltd.
    When I was a kid in the early 50’s, most of the shop space at No.5 Wharf Road was taken up by Kwong Hup Hing Goldsmith while the Kwong Lee Bank still retained a small office at the rear corner of the shop. The manger in charge of the bank then was known to me as Ji Aw. He always dressesd himself like a British colonial officer with white shorts and knee high socks and often came over to our shop to chat with my father. Was Ji Aw related to the founder of Kwong Lee Bank, Lam Ji Chiew?
    I’ll send you a copy of the photo if you can give me your email address.

    Reply

    • Hi there, this is the most exciting comment I have received. I would be very interested to see any pix or receive info you and your family can provide me. Will email you my contact. Thank you so much for writing.

      Reply

    • Hi Shy, am not sure where you are hearing this from. Would appreciate to know. As far as I know LAM JIChiew, my granduncle was as much a muslim as I am! And anyone who knows me also know that our beliefs are kept within!

      Reply

    • As mentioned, I do not know any members from your branch of the LAMs. Please ask your father or any of your other relatives for info and names for your branch. If you can build up your branch, we can try and connect the branches.

      Reply

  8. dear Amy,
    I would like to inquire more rgds to your family history, it’s because that I am one the volunteers in an old folks home where we come across a 82years old uncle who shifted in from Klang and mentioned to us that his dad owns a bank in Sarawak..he is having memory lost lately and we wud like to try to look for his relatives..

    Reply

  9. dear Amy,
    correction ya..he is actually 88years old.yesterday the old folks home chairman manage to gather some info from him , as he claim that he is the son of Mr.Lam Song Kee..we hope that you guys can be reunited..

    Reply

  10. hi amy,
    correction ya..he is actually 88years old.yesterday the old folks home chairman manage to gather some info from him , as he claim that he is the son of Mr.Lam Song Kee..we hope that you guys can be reunited..

    Reply

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  12. Hi Amy! I don’t know if it’s of interest in your history, but we have on record a Mortgage loan taken from Lam Tee Chew in Singapore by my great-grandfather, against his house in Tanjong Pagar, earlier than the official bank opening in Singapore in 1926. Oddly, the mortgage was taken out in 1919 and not reconveyed back to my g-grandfather until 1930. He took out another loan in 1933 with the brother, Lim Song Kee. So they were active as individual mortgagors before and after becoming an official bank here. Cheers!

    Reply

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