StanChart’s Elayne Ho takes on new challenges each year to succeed

She cites the importance of surrounding herself with female role models.

Elayne Ho thinks that the key to a successful banking career is doing something new each year.

“I set an ambition for myself every year to do something different — whether it's debuting a new client to the market, or a debut transaction in the sense that it's a market that the client has not entered before,” Ho, executive director for capital markets at Standard Chartered Plc, told Asian Banking & Finance.

Ho thinks of herself not only as a dealmaker, but also as an active builder of the bank’s Debt Capital Markets (“DCM”) franchise, a division that helps sovereigns, corporates, and financial institutions raise capital through debt instruments.

Ho, who joined the bank in 2008 as a fresh graduate and is currently responsible for covering the bond funding requirements of clients in Singapore and the Philippines, cited the importance of being surrounded by female role models.

“I have been blessed to have received a lot of support from women mentors and women bosses,” she said by phone. “I personally look up to these successful female role models, whether internally or my clients, and learn from them in the best way I can.”

“It is a very exciting time for women who want to succeed, whether it's in banking or in other industries,” Ho said, adding that society has become more supportive of women focused on building their careers over the years. At Standard Chartered, its inclusive practices include offering all employees 20 weeks of parental care leave, enabling flexible work arrangements to support family care needs and empowering young women in need through Futuremakers employability and entrepreneurship programmes.

Ho, who was named Best Debt Capital Markets banker in Singapore by a finance magazine in 2024 based on a client poll, advises young, aspiring female bankers: “Dare to be different, have the patience, and persevere. Eventually, hard work does pay off.”

She also credits the support programs of Standard Chartered for helping build her career, which started when she was accepted to the lender’s management training program for fresh graduates.

Such programmes are part of Standard Chartered’s commitment to nurture the next generation of aspiring finance professionals, Ho said, by providing opportunities for young graduates and students to gain knowledge and interface with industry professionals through various early career initiatives.

She joined StanChart’s Debt Capital Markets division after her two-year training. She had also interned at the bank.

Looking ahead, Ho looks forward to bond tokenization, whose increased adoption she thinks will deepen the debt markets 

This development in bond tokenization will broaden investors’ access to bond markets, which adds to efficiency and liquidity of bond markets, she added.