CIMB is building its wealth strategy around longstanding local customer relationships across its core ASEAN markets. Its opportunity is to deepen those relationships through advice, connect customers' personal and business needs across borders, and extend them across generations.

Animoca Brands’ Evan Auyang sees regulated stablecoins connecting Hong Kong’s capital markets to global blockchain liquidity, but tokenised deposits and central bank money offer alternative settlement instruments.

Risk and Capital Weekly Brief: Basel averages systemic bank indicators year-round; Yes Bank’s court ruling and Nordea’s ECB review weigh on bank capital.

Transaction Finance Weekly: Santander and BBVA administer a syndicated loan on blockchain as Visa takes stablecoin prefunding live and Japan’s three megabanks test a yen stablecoin ahead of live transactions.

The Asian Banker Weekly Brief: Despite an upgraded IMF growth outlook, oil-driven inflation, higher yields and an AI-share sell-off are straining markets.

As banks consider digital asset services across several businesses, Talos’s Samar Sen argues that settlement, treasury, staffing and controls are becoming part of decisions previously centred on technology.

Jumio’s Bala Kumar discusses how banks can use previous identity information to reassess risk beyond onboarding and reduce repeated document submission for recognised customers.

TAB China Weekly Brief: China’s latest releases show strong trade alongside weak net household borrowing, while Visa’s clearing approval advances foreign participation in the domestic payments market.

Financial Technology Weekly: Citi reported a 30% reduction in technology vendor spending as AI supported more work in-house, while HKMA explored accountability for banking AI agents.

Sabih Behzad sees stablecoins, tokenised deposits and central bank money serving different purposes rather than competing for one winning model. For Deutsche Bank, scaling them means connecting new forms of money and assets with regulated custody, controls and the traditional financial infrastructure banks already operate.

GenLayer Labs co-founder and CEO Albert Castellana explains how intelligent contracts could assess disputed obligations between AI agents, while the Internet Court initiative seeks to connect contractual services as questions of reliability, appeals and legal accountability remain unresolved.

Cardano Foundation CFO Stephen Wood explains how blockchain-based reporting allows financial records to be independently verified and how programmable tokens can enforce transfer restrictions, as common standards and interoperability become increasingly important.

Digital banks serve customers far more cheaply than incumbents, but most generate less revenue for every dollar spent on servicing. Nubank and WeBank stand out, generating 4.1x and 3.8x their servicing cost in revenue respectively, outperforming leading incumbents. Most other digital banks fall short of incumbent benchmarks, showing that lower cost-to-serve alone does not guarantee stronger economics.

At Finance West Africa 2026, banking and technology leaders questioned whether recapitalisation would translate into productive lending, challenged the commercial viability of serving Nigeria’s next 40 million potential banking customers and identified persistent barriers to regional payments. Competition between banks and fintechs, alongside AI-enabled financial crime, is adding pressure to rethink business models and risk management.

BNY completed a tokenised Treasury financing transaction, while CPMI–IOSCO clarified financial safeguards for market infrastructure operators. State Street reported servicing-fee growth and new mandates.