In addition to leading their institutions to support customers and communities, some bank bosses are also taking pay cuts or making charitable donations to support the fight against the COVID-19

Digital banks in Asia Pacific witnessed improving overall profitability in FY2019. Although some digital banks’ net profit in FY2020 has been affected by COVID-19 pandemic, their growth outlook remains optimistic.

Retail banking sector has been the main growth driver for Indian banking sector during the past few years, as banks’ exposure to corporate banking sector has been reduced due to bad loans problems. Their retail lending has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.2% over the FY2013 to FY2018 period, making India's retail banking one of the biggest among emerging markets.

As the race towards digitalisation intensifies, the relationship between banks and “big tech” companies is increasingly marked by collaboration and synergy, not just competition

Chinese banks’ mortgage loan growth dropped the most in 2017 and will continue to be affected by property cooling measures and relatively tight liquidity conditions. Hong Kong banks’ mortgage loan growth, on the other hand, increased, but they are not expected to maintain it due to tough operating conditions.

Digital-only banks pose serious challenges to the traditional financial services industry with their entirely new banking experience. However, for most of them, licensing, scale and profitability are the three key issues they must face going forward.

Household indebtedness has been on the rise, which is putting future economic growth and financial stability in jeopardy. Thus, many central banks have unveiled measures to curb high household debt. In Asia Pacific, Australia and South Korea are facing the most serious household debt problems.

Increased utilisation of financial technology is setting the stage for further digitisation of the Philippine’s consumer banking industry, which is slowly transitioning into a “cash-lite” economy.

WeBank of China, Ally Bank in the US, and the retail arm of ING Group, topped The Asian Banker's the inaugural global ranking of leading digital banks.

A whitepaper just released by Honghu Best Global Family Office and The Asian Banker, "Global Family Office and Wealth Management Best Practices 2021 - Global Perspectives, Chinese Flair" reveals that succession planning is critical to intergenerational wealth transfer. However, most families do not prepare or plan for a smooth transition, leading to the partial or even full loss of wealth or family values that need to be passed on.

The financial services industry is undergoing a massive shift to cloud, but the challenging technology transition for incumbents requires a strategic rethink of architecture, data, people and processes.

The total capitalisation of digital assets surged three-fold in 2021, with strong evidence that the momentum is likely to continue into the new year. DeFi users are expected to continue their exponential growth over the next 12 months, with more institutional investors moving into the space, combined with greater clarity over regulators’ stance in the large economies such as China and the US. What challenges and uncertainties could lie ahead to derail the upbeat outlook?

Mobile-based payment platform OPay has grown exponentially since its launch in 2018, penetrating the unbanked and underbanked population in Nigeria. It allows users to send and receive money, pay bills, and order food and groceries, with a network of thousands of agents.

The push for climate change considerations puts pressure on financial services companies to develop and use advanced technologies such as blockchain that promises improved governance.

New digital financial infrastructure, new regional free trade agreements, and decisive leadership in the emerging sustainability and green agenda bode well for international RMB adoption.

With 41% of China's $45 trillion in banking assets and 27% of its $30 trillion in loans exposed to the property market, authorities are likely to initiate an orderly distribution of distressed assets of real estate developers such as Evergrande that failed to meet the “three red lines” limit on debt liabilities. Leveraged expansion sabotaged Evergrande’s sustainability while profit from property development shrunk for three consecutive years.

Global mobile phone users are projected to reach 4.8 billion by 2025, compared with 2.8 billion users in 2020. Businesses are tapping into this vast market as mobile wallets gain an increasing share of the payments market.

As the trade finance industry collectively progresses to address challenges around digital fragmentation and isolation, adoption of standard solutions and well-established legal frameworks along with technology as an enabler will play critical roles in truly digitalising trade.

Commercial banks such as DBS Bank and traditional exchanges such as the Singapore Exchange have one thing in common: they are setting up and adding digital exchanges and platforms to their existing business lines.

As demand for sustainable products rises, stakeholders including consumers, investors, and regulators are pushing manufacturers, suppliers and lenders to incorporate ESG metrics in evaluating the performance of their supply chains.

As the number of e-wallet players in Indonesia surges amid the vast market opportunities, bigger players have begun extending the competition beyond payments

The Chinese government has proposed establishing a joint venture with local technology companies to oversee the collection of data from Chinese consumers.

The rapid transformation of domestic and cross-border payments brings new opportunities and challenges for financial institutions.Amid shrinking payment margins, players are rethinking their business models to better monetise data insights and integrate financing options such as “buy now, pay later” (BNPL). Industry experts share their views on the impact of this changing landscape, emerging value propositions, and key technology enablers for future growth

Industry practitioners discuss how process of bringing offshore global supply chains back to the country of origin accelerates demand for existing and new financing programmes that provide liquidity for sub-tier level of suppliers

Chinese and Japanese banks again dominate the list of The Asian Banker 500 largest banks. Balance sheet growth accelerated in the first half of 2020 and some players are reinforcing their scale and competitiveness through mergers and acquisitions

The inaugural BankQuality™ Consumer Survey and Rankings in the Middle East interviewed 3,000 customers in three key markets in the region on their engagement, experience and satisfaction with their main retail banks.

Tech giants, which make up some of the world’s largest companies, are muscling into traditional banking spaces. But whether they want to crush the traditional finance players or enable them, they are learning across the globe that disrupting well-regulated banking systems is easier said than done

At the International Heads of Retail Finance Virtual Meeting on 28 August 2020, leaders from over 22 institutions in Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, discussed key trends and issues impacting the industry. The rise of digital only banks, integrating lifestyle and finance through digital platforms, and improving customer experience were at the forefront of the dialogue.

The inaugural BankQuality™ Consumer Survey and Rankings interviewed 11,000 bank customers in 11 markets across the Asia Pacific region on their engagement, experience and satisfaction with their main retail banks.

The German fintech’s dramatic collapse is likely to reshape the payment processing landscape as market rewards players leading innovation and value creation

The use of RMB in international transactions will increase despite US-China trade frictions and on-going COVID-19 pandemic according to the latest annual survey on RMB internationalisation conducted jointly by China Construction Bank and Asian Banker Research.

Africa’s payments services are rapidly growing, driven by concerted efforts between mobile money operators, banks and fintech as well as regulatory drives to implement real time payment systems, while rise in mobile money accounts and fintech threatens to make traditional bank account services irrelevant.

Sharp rise in electronic payment incidents in Australia resulted in substantial customer disruption in 2018.

While fintechs may take some market share away in specific niches, the partnerships, analytics, and value-add that leading banks are developing can keep head of the game. Banks that fail to keep up could lose a significant share of their SME business

Pressure on margins from increased competition and compliance requirements is forcing the industry to recalibrate its trade finance offerings. While institutions know that trade digitalisation is important for the future of the business, success relies heavily on deeper coordination and collaboration between the myriad participants in the trade finance ecosystem and technology enablers

While the growth of Alibaba and Alipay as well as Tencent and WeChat pay in China is well known, there have been questions about whether a similar model can succeed outside of China. Local players as well as those Chinese giants themselves are starting to show that a super-app may well succeed in other markets in Asia too.

Chinese credit card industry exploded over the past two years, with growth rates being recorded in the number of credit cards issued and outstanding credit card debt, as well as the income from credit card business.

Given that remittances are so lucrative in so many markets in Asia, and that new competitors are offering faster and cheaper services, banks will need to develop new models if they want to keep their customers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to transform retail banking, impacting the customer journey from acquisition on through to retention.

The most competitive digital retail financial institutions come all but from China, and the elite club of the top 10, representing all non-bank financial players, are exclusively from China, Korea and Australia

The bank onboarding process should be fast, as the most fundamental attribute of an exceptional account opening experience is speed

Driven by competition and rapid disruption, banks increasingly spend on technology enabled models targeted to improve customer experience and service capability. What are the recent developments and top priorities of banks in 2018?

As real-time processing becomes the norm in domestic payments, how long would it take for cross-border payments to catch up?

Global and regional cash management banks across Asia-Pacific are making substantial investments in digital initiatives to enhance the overall transaction experience of their clients.

Electronic channels and bank agnostic platforms are transforming traditional trade finance functions across Asia Pacific

The discussion on cybersecurity is being given increased importance in the boardroom as cybercrime goes global and data protection comes to the forefront

Implications of new regulations and emergence of digital-only players were hot button issues discussed this year at the Asian Banker Future of Finance ‘Global Transactions Re-invented’ track

Pundits who see fintechs as the epitome of digital revolution need to pause and consider a simple fact, they may well be transitory and more dramatic changes are yet to come

Losses from cybercrime has increased sharply as ransomware incidents soar, ‘cybercrime as a service’ provides greater access and new threats emerge, forcing banks to implement multilayered and stronger technology enabled IT risk and security frameworks.

Digital disruption is rapidly changing the competitive and operating landscape and driving institutions and regulators to adopt opening banking strategies and create API enabled IT architectures.

Long a bastion of personalised service by relationship managers, the wealth management sector is undergoing a transformation as clients demand better service and as digital delivery enables new models. Wealth management firms need to combine “high-tech” with “high-touch” to stay ahead.

Traditional banks in China have begun to utilise cutting-edge technologies by collaborating with technology companies, start-ups or emerging financial institutions. While pushing their way in revolution, the vital point is to strike a balance between the digitisation of services and traditional manual banking services.

As trials move into actual implementations, global financial markets and monetary systems will be disrupted and transformed.

Indian banks still dominate the list of the top 10 banks with the highest nonperforming loan (NPL)ratio among the 500 largest banks in Asia Pacific, despite the improved asset quality. In addition, the list also includes two banks from Bangladesh and one each from China, Japan, and Pakistan.

Al Rajhi Bank retained the top spot in the rankings of the largest and the strongest Islamic banks in the world. Malaysia had the most Islamic banks on the list, while Saudi Arabia held the largest share of total assets

Asia Pacific banking sector delivered better-than-expected profitability and reduced NPLs in FY2021.The strongest banks in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Malaysia and Singapore ranked among the top 10 strongest banks in the region

Asia Pacific banks saw asset growth slow down to 7.9% in FY2021 from 10.7% in FY2020, while 85% of banks posted higher net profit, reflecting economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic

Saudi National Bank, the third largest bank in the Middle East and Africa, achieved solid profitability. National Bank of Egypt overtook Standard Bank Group as the largest bank in Africa and it fared well in asset quality, capitalisation and liquidity

Central banks worldwide increasingly recognise the benefits of wholesale central bank digital currencies (wCBDCs) in making remittances and other cross-border transactions cheaper, faster and safer. Pilot projects set in motion seek to identify opportunities and risks as well as explore the possibility of having shared infrastructure to automate cross-border payments, foreign exchange and settlements.

Growing transaction volumes are pushing Indian banks to rethink technology architecture to integrate cloud and data capabilities to meet growing transaction volumes. Indian fintechs and digital players see consumer growth, but also increased expectations and competition.

CaixaBank in Spain and South American bank Itau Unibanco topped this year’s inaugural Global Retail Bank Ranking

The failure of Silicon Valley, Silvergate and Signature banks was caused by asset-liability mismatches, interest rate hikes and insufficient diversification, with many other US banks set to crack

Banks are forward-looking, leaving the pandemic behind and helping clients to expand in the region by digitising operations and embarking on sustainability journeys

Consumers chose Indonesia’s Bank Central Asia as the Most Recommended Retail Bank, and DBS Singapore as Most Selected Main Bank in APAC in the 2023 BankQuality Survey

Indonesia’s Bank Central Asia, DBS Singapore, South Korea’s Toss Bank, and China’s Alipay were voted the Most Recommended Retail Bank, Most Selected Main Bank, Most Recommended Digital-only Bank and Most Recommended Platform, respectively, in the 2023 BankQuality™ Consumer Survey

Indonesians voted BCA as the Most Recommended Retail Bank, followed by blu as the Best Digital-only Bank and Dana as the Most Recommended Platform in the 2023 BankQuality™ Consumer Survey

Banks have implemented chatbots for operational efficiency and improved customer access, but new AI capabilities expose key gaps in contextual and cognitive capabilities of current bots

UnionBank topped the 2023 BankQuality™ Survey in the Philippines as the Most Recommended Retail Bank, achieving a score of 67%, tying with Metrobank but with varying margins across key categories

Consumers in India rated ICICI as the Most Recommended Retail Bank in the 2023 BankQuality™ Survey with a score of 69%, while Paytm scored 64% and rated as the Most Recommended Digital-Only Bank

Consumers in Thailand voted Kasikornbank as the Most Recommended and Most Selected Main Retail Bank in the 2023 BankQuality Survey; Siam Commercial Bank placed second while Line BK emerged as highly-rated digital-only bank

China's wealth management market has the potential to surpass $100 trillion by 2025, but it needs to overcome challenges like low asset allocation, regulatory changes, and pressure on wealth managers

The current disintermediation in payments and MSME lending marks the tip of the iceberg, and retail deposits may be the next battleground

The financial services market size in the metaverse is predicted to drop from 22% to 6% by 2030—its fall from tech wonder to half-baked idea in financial services requires differentiation in its value proposition to secure success

North America demonstrated the highest overall strength, followed by Asia Pacific and the Middle East, with all banks in the ranking averaging decline in return on assets from 0.76% to 0.74%, and improved gross non-performing loan ratio from 1.8% to 1.65%

DBS’s Gupta is the highest-paid bank CEO in Asia Pacific, while Public Bank CEO Tay received the highest compensation as a percentage of net profit, with the combined total earned by the top 10 highest-paid bank chiefs in the region reaching $63.4 million in FY2022, up from $56.5 million in FY2021

Digital currencies are revolutionising global finance and erasing borders, and while DeFi and the creator economy drive privacy-focused systems independent of governments, the narrative centers on traditional finance and DeFi convergence

Taiwanese consumers voted E.Sun Bank as the Most Recommended Retail Bank, giving it a 13% BankQuality™ Score. CTBC Bank emerged as the Most Selected Main Bank, securing 20% of the bankable population for primary relationships

Thirty-seven banks held assets surpassing $1 trillion, distributed among 16 in Asia Pacific, 13 in Europe, and eight in North America, representing 51% of the top 1000 banks’ total assets; overall asset growth has decelerated, with the US and some European nations experiencing steep declines and countries like Egypt demonstrating resilience

Despite economic headwinds, banks leveraged advanced technologies and a customer-centric approaches to drive balanced growth, with customer engagement, financial inclusion, and ecosystem development emerging as key strategies

Hong Kong consumers voted Citibank as the Most Recommended Retail Bank with a BankQuality™ Score of 19%, Airstar Bank as the Most Recommended Digital-Only Bank with 12%, and Octopus as the Most Recommended Platform with 14%.

According to a TABInsights survey on technology investment, FI in APAC prioritise data management, advanced analytics and digital banking capabilities

Malaysian consumers voted Maybank as the Most Recommended Retail Bank, while Touch ’n Go emerged as the Most Recommended Platform in the latest BQS™

The shift in global supply chains is accelerating demand for new financing programmes and solutions that aim to accelerate and improve trade digitalisation processes

In 2023, China’s domestic systemically important banks grew to 20, led by China Merchants Bank in the TAB Global 1000 World’s Strongest Banks 2023 ranking, but some still require more capital despite improved capital ratios

Four banks in Bangladesh on the TABInsights Bank Watch List reported an average gross NPL ratio of 17.8% in FY2022, while Indian banks demonstrated improved asset quality, with none making the list, highlighting resilience to economic fluctuations

Banks in the Middle East and Asia Pacific showcased outstanding operational efficiency, with Qatari banks achieving exceptional cost-to-income ratios by leveraging superior IT infrastructure, offering cost-effective digital services, and tailoring branch networks to cater to smaller populations

Al Rajhi Bank in Saudi Arabia remains the leading global Islamic bank, with Middle Eastern counterparts surpassing Asian ones in scale and profitability, while Asian Islamic banks exhibit stronger asset quality

Trade finance is gradually digitalising amid evolving e-commerce models, driven by technology and sustainability; the $2.5 trillion global trade finance gap affecting SMEs prompts innovation in blockchain, tokenisation, and sustainability, despite geopolitical complexities

Banks have been investing in AI over the last few years, focusing on specific use cases. They must now scale AI across their business processes and incorporate emerging advancements in GenAI.

The majority of institutions surveyed attribute their increased Renminbi usage to China’s investments and partnerships facilitated by the Belt and Road Initiative

The Indian central bank’s disciplinary action and consequent threat to Paytm Payments Bank’s licence is a lesson for the industry that growth and innovation cannot be at the cost of compliance

Philippine digital banks saw rapid growth in 2023 alongside mounting concerns over credit quality as gross NPL ratios soared

The global use of Renminbi is influenced by geopolitics, macroeconomic conditions, infrastructure, and technology

A prominent player in Southeast Asia’s digital finance sector, the group saw significant growth in 2023, cutting losses by 29% despite a challenging economic environment

Surveyed institutions continue to adopt RMB in cross-border trade, driven by cost benefits and foreign exchange risk management

Nubank has reported its first full-year profitability since its launch in 2014. Nearing 100 million customers, the bank has set new benchmarks in revenue

The top 10 digital banks saw revenue grow from $41 billion in 2022 to about $49 billion in 2023

JPMorgan Chase, China Construction Bank, and Emirates NBD claimed leading spots in this year’s ranking, with JPMorgan Chase standing out in retail financial performance and digital customer base

The popularity of Bank Central Asia reflects a trend of traditional banks embracing digital innovation to meet customer preferences

The world’s top 10 most profitable banks with assets over $100 billion include four from the Middle East, three from Asia, two from the Americas, and one from Europe

South American banks led with the highest average loan-to-deposit ratio at 109%, followed by Europe at 96%, with around 50% of South American and 42% of European banks with ratios exceeding 100%

China‘s private banking sector has witnessed a significant migration of high-net-worth individuals to the country‘s largest banks, underscoring a flight-to-safety trend and intensifying competitive pressures for smaller banks.

Member countries of the Arab Monetary Fund are enhancing global cross-border transactions through streamlined payments, improved compliance, and increased financial inclusion.