Grace Law's move to the U.S. from Hong Kong to work for a Chase branch in New York City was a far cry from a glitzy city dream.
Most of her days began at 7:30 a.m. so she could attend classes at Pace University, where Chase sponsored her earning her business administration degree. Then after work, she would go back to school for a late night class.
This was her routine for nine years until she graduated. But she had decided the opportunity to earn a college degree was worth the long days. Law was 27 years old in 1990 when she transferred from her job as a teller at a Chase branch in Hong Kong to a customer service representative role at one of the bank's branches in the Big Apple. She helped Mandarin-speaking customers in lower Manhattan.
"I was young at the time, so I was thinking why not just try it out?" she said about being offered the job at the 2 Bowery Chase branch. "You've heard about the American dream, right?"
Now more than three decades later, Law serves as the vice president of retail branch operations for the four branches of Abacus Federal Savings Bank in New York City. Law works with the sales operations and deposits department, and her daily tasks run from the mundane — verifying checks, for instance — to thinking of ways to better connect the bank's immigrant customers with new technology.
The $310 million-asset family-owned bank was founded in 1984 by Thomas Sung, who immigrated from Shanghai to the United States in 1952. He has since passed the management on to two of his daughters, Jill Sung, who currently serves as CEO, and Vera Sung, who serves as a director. The bank was, and still is, a pillar of Chinatown's economy.
Even in this digital age, branches remain a critical part of many institutions' operations and the financial services industry overall. There are still consumers who prefer coming into a branch for the personal touch that they won't get with online banking options. Many consumers also still take comfort in knowing there is a physical place they can visit if a problem arises.
Branch managers and other branch executives, such as Law, help ensure these vast networks of locations run smoothly and that there is always a smiling face there to greet customers who come in with a question or a concern. Because of that, American Banker is running a series of stories highlighting the efforts of these bankers.
Law said that the most meaningful part of her work is the decision-making power to help customers and to tailor banking products and services to the needs of her community.
"So with the experience and understanding of customers' needs, I can try to make changes," she said. "Because we are small, with less layers of management, we can be flexible and quick to make changes."
Climbing (down) the corporate ladder
Law didn't set out to be a lifelong banker and instead stumbled upon the career. She started off as a teller at Citibank in Hong Kong before she joined Chase.
At Chase in New York, she said she enjoyed the freedom to try different roles and was encouraged to explore her potential as a leader. She was even sent to a networking series, "Emerging Leaders Navigating the Future," by the bank in 1998.
After 17 years with Chase, Law left and took a job just down the street with Hong Kong-based HSBC as a senior branch manager. She remembers dotting the "eyes" of the dragon boat with a paintbrush during HSBC's annual dragon boat race festival at Flushing Meadows Park — the honorary final touch usually reserved for the bank's VIP customers.
She then moved to Cathay Bank, a Chinese-owned institution based on the West Coast. One of her biggest achievements there was helping to create an escrow product for landlords that had a master account connected with various sub-accounts. The product was developed to help a local senior citizens home that had wanted to work with Cathay but couldn't because the bank didn't offer this escrow product.
Then just two years ago, Law landed at Abacus. Her career trajectory may seem counterintuitive given that she has taken roles at increasingly smaller institutions. But each move presented her with bigger managerial duties and gave her a larger voice in important decisions.
"I had no experience doing this," Law said of her current job overseeing Abacus' branches. "For a larger bank, they won't hire me for this position. This is a good way for me to really learn and make changes."
As the organizations she worked for shrank in size, Law's ability to impact her immediate community swelled. "I'm an advocate for my customers and employees as well," she said.
For instance, Law takes pride in being able to help an immigrant who lacks a permanent address open an account or a customer who is looking for a credit card despite having no credit history. Abacus provides products for these customers who are often overlooked by other mainstream financial services companies.
Jill Sung, CEO of Abacus, attested to Law's ability to make change for the better.
"She's very willing to ride through challenges, which is really important in a small bank — to be able to play more than just one single role," said Sung. "You can't be siloed in a small bank. You have to be able to move through different roles and meet challenges as they come."
Not as simple as chatbots
On Law's desk in her branch manager's office sit three stress balls she uses to decompress during work: two red star-shaped balls and a yellow one with spokes jutting out. She uses them as a reminder to calm down when encountering a particularly frustrating problem. "The hardest part is trying to manage your emotions when your employee does something wrong," said Law as she gazed out her window on the sixth floor of Abacus' headquarters. She wears a set of pearl earrings that glimmer under her cropped hair and a marble jade bangle that peeks out from her sleeve. "You have to calm down first and find a way to talk to them. If you are too emotional, maybe you'll say something to hurt them."
Law also strives for patience with customers who come to the bank for help with technological or language assistance. Most of Abacus' customers' first language remains Chinese, meaning conducting their banking in English can be a struggle. Because of that, Law is adamant that branch personnel are able to speak the language of the community being served. Branch employees must be able to do everything from walking customers through financial documents to helping them safely change a password to an online bank account.
Although digital banking has lessened the importance of branches for much of the industry, in-person interactions still remain critical for Abacus given this language barrier. During the pandemic, when other banks shuttered their branches, Abacus stayed open for all but one day. The day after the bank had shut its doors, customers lined up outside to get help. That's just one sign of how important in-person interactions are to Abacus' customers, Sung said.
Sung added that some of Abacus' customers are skeptical about what happens to their money after they leave it to the "internet black hole."
"Bigger banks over time will move much more freely to digitize," she added. "They can sort of choose what they're going to do and not going to do. But a small bank like ours, we don't really pick and choose. We have to meet the demands of our market."
Still, Abacus customers are curious about the possibility of more seamless and efficient ways to move their money, including payment apps like Venmo or Zelle, according to Law. It's just a matter of proper education and risk assessment.
To make apps such as those accessible for Abacus' customers, she is planning a video tutorial in Chinese that will be played on branch televisions that walk customers through certain online banking options.
"We have to work with the technology. We just have to do it in different ways," Law said.
The American dream
"Most people have the American dream," said Law. "So [my family was] really happy that I came here. They were supportive."
But this promise of freedom has come at a cost at times. Law has witnessed significant changes and historic events over the decades she has lived in New York City. Law vividly remembers 9/11. The planes collided into the Twin Towers, which were just a stone's throw from the Chase branch at 2 Bowery. She saw people "running from downtown covered in white dust" from her teller's window.
She rushed to her car to drive to her son in Brooklyn. When she got to the Manhattan bridge and saw that it had been barricaded, she turned back to the nearest parking lot and walked from Manhattan to Brooklyn instead.
More recently, as a founder of a new Kiwanis Club division, the Kiwanis Club of Community Care, Law and her team of volunteers partnered with the New York Police Department to help patrol local subway stations in the aftermath of the murder of Christina Yuna Lee and other hate crimes targeting Asian American women in 2022. Lee was stabbed to death inside her Chrystie Street apartment in Chinatown, setting off protests in the Asian American community.
In this role, she also translated a parent's guide for the prevention of adolescent drug use into Chinese after several overdose incidents in her neighborhood.
On certain days after work, Law practices Tai Chi, a Chinese meditative martial art, in a nearby studio. "I picked it up because it is hard for me to do other exercises. This is slow and you can really take your own time," said Law.
Sung said that Law's best quality is her "desire to be part of this mission" of prioritizing the needs of the consumer. "Banks like ours, mission-based banks, have people who are not just willing to accept, but also believe in the mission," said Sung. "We believe in the smaller institution because ... we've seen that we will be more accountable to our consumer and to our market."
Sung said that it can be difficult at times to get Abacus' message out that smaller, community banks are better able to serve customers.
"My father, when he started the bank, told us, 'If the community doesn't need you anymore, you'll know it,'" said Sung. "At that time, maybe you will look and see whether or not institutions should be here. But so long as the community needs you then you need to be here."
For now, as Law waters her violet plants and cacti that bask in the sunlight from her office window daily, that seems to be the case. "It's another chapter of my life — to do something different. This organization provides me the opportunity to learn and is community-oriented," she said. "Together we can work to help the community a lot."
