In the recently released Global Fintech Hub Report 2021, Beijing was named the best fintech hub, followed by San Francisco, New York, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and London.

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

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.

The continuous expansion of the crypto market and the innovations it promises have been closely watched by the financial services industry, particularly by regulators. While it continues to face an uncertain, future. several factors, including the constant offering of new cryptos, new use cases in DeFi and CeFi application, increasing number of users, and structural changes and innovation in financial markets will determine its long-term growth.

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.

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.

The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), a global industry group for central counterparties (CCPs) and exchanges, recently published its 7th annual sustainability survey. The survey takes into account the nature and extent of ESG involvement by WFE members.

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

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

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

Several key themes emerged amidst the many discussions by global leaders in payments, including QR code, blockchain, credit card schemes, fintech and data consolidation

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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%

Investors’ risk appetite and fondness for fintechs have cooled, leading to a 42% drop in global funding and 57% drop in APAC funding in the first half of this year

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

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

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

Ma has finally emerged from Coventry with a memo on Alibaba’s structural reform. Could this be an easing of tensions with Chinese regulators, and nod to a potential pivot to cloud computing and AI?