Charles Li, Founder and Chairman of Micro Connect, on connecting big finance to the little guy — a special series marking the 10th anniversary of the PBC Forum

Charles Li spent over a decade running one of the world's major stock exchanges and chairing JP Morgan China before turning his attention to an entirely different challenge: bringing institutional capital to small businesses — franchise owners, landlords, and local shopkeepers — that Wall Street has traditionally struggled to reach. In this episode, Charles, Founder and Chairman of Micro Connect, joins Alberto Lidji to explore how institutional capital might finally find its way to the small businesses that need it most.

This conversation was recorded at the PBC 2026 Forum — Philanthropy for Better Cities 2026 — in Hong Kong, and forms part of a special series made possible by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, marking the forum's 10th anniversary, convened by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, in association with the Institute of Philanthropy.

What does it take to convince Wall Street investors to back a business model built on the transparency of everyday transactions rather than traditional balance sheets? How does artificial intelligence change what's possible when it comes to assessing risk at that scale? And what can decades spent inside the world's biggest financial institutions teach us about building something entirely new for the world's smallest ones?

Charles also reflects on his own path, from working on an oil rig, to Columbia Law School, to the top of Hong Kong's stock exchange — and what that journey tells us about reinventing yourself as the world around you changes.

About Charles Li: He was appointed Chairman of JP Morgan China from 2003 to 2009. He joined Merrill Lynch in 1994, where he served as President of Merrill Lynch China from 1999 to 2003. He holds a BA in English Literature from Xiamen University, an MA in Journalism from the University of Alabama, and a JD from Columbia Law School.

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