Realising that many newly arrived businessmen had difficulty obtaining loans from established Western banks, Lee and his business associates started several local Chinese banks, including Ho Hong Bank.
Untuk mewujudkan beberapa bisnis yang baru datang yang sulit memperoleh pinjaman dari bank-bank Barat yang didirikan, Lee dan asosiadi bisnis-nya memulai beberapa bank Tionghoa lokal, termasuk Bank Ho Hong.