The number of unicorns has increased dramatically amid a surge in venture capital investments, making 2021 a record year for privately held startup companies achieving unicorn status.

Asian stock markets attracted less investible funds in 2018 and more went into bond markets, banking institutions and managed funds

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.

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

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

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

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

The Asia Pacific banking sector will benefit from the improving global and regional economic conditions in 2018. Overall, better asset quality is expected, and banks will maintain relatively stable profitability and capitalisation. Nevertheless, there are growing concerns over the potential asset price corrections, high private debt, and geopolitical risks.

New players and technologies continue to drive change in the transaction banking space in Asia Pacific, causing incumbent banks to focus more on improving customer experience and reviewing existing business models.

Investments and interest in distributed ledger technology have been rising rapidly as new use cases emerge to harness its potential. The technology is nonetheless still at an early stage with many hurdles to cross, possibly five to seven years away from mainstream adoption.

With more than 70% of Southeast Asia being unbanked, fintech possesses tremendous potential to widen financial inclusion and spur economies. Advances in the industry mean more people and companies have the ability to save, borrow and transact. Yet with such a wide and sensitive remit, regulations need to keep pace with the constant innovation.

Financial institutions are starting to use APIs to create important linkages between their products and services and their customers and important third party value providers. Early movers to stand to gain mindshare of both customers and the wider application developer community.

Digitisation in the cross-border money transfer industry might leave fewer opportunities for incumbent banks and operators to grow. How they cultivate alliances and digital innovation to stay ahead of competitive will be critical moving forward.

Wide discontent with conventional banks have led to the emergence of mobile-only fintech banks. However, these challenger banks are struggling to expand their customer reach, putting doubts whether they can stand against bigger traditional banks.

Competition is forcing banks to improve the digital experience of their customers. Banks are focused on investing in mobile technologies, data analytics, security and cloud computing.

As the search for efficiency intensifies amid a slowdown in economic growth, banks continue to leverage technology to relieve cost pressures and provide increasingly complex working capital solutions that their clients demand.

The development of digital platforms that enable direct global money transfer is a nascent but fast growing business model from the remittance industry. The model does not envisage traditional banks as part of the long term plans, and competes with the largest global money operators head on.

Regulators in African countries are exploring the role of open banking in financial services. This push is reflected by the diverse opportunities that open banking can provide to financial services and end-customers.

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

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

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

An altered operating environment has led treasury to reprioritise their investment and liquidity management strategy, with cash management providers offering enhanced solutions

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

China's e-commerce rebounded in 2023, with Pinduoduo's remarkable performance surpassing that of Alibaba and JD.com. Alibaba responded with the 'Year-End Good Price' festival, emphasising a 'low price strategy.'

Transaction banks in the Middle East are expanding services in non-oil businesses with high growth potential, in line with economic diversification, and to mitigate geopolitical instability in countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council

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%