Financial Technology Weekly: Crédit Mutuel Arkéa disclosed a EUR 100 million ($112.6 million) cyber theft involving compromised third-party access, while banks reported growing AI-driven gains in data migration, productivity, lending and fraud detection. Regulators in the US and Hong Kong also outlined approaches to overseeing AI agents and the risks of delegated authority.

UOB's ASEAN network, wealth business and transaction banking franchise offer opportunities for growth, but uneven regional returns, rising funding costs and heavier investment are testing the economics of its expansion.

Peter Seah’s chairmanship saw DBS undertake a sustained digital transformation, but subsequent technology disruptions and expanding AI adoption have increased the demands on board oversight as new leadership takes over.

DBS’s third-quarter 2026 net profit fell 5% to SGD 2.81 billion ($2.20 billion) as weaker trading outweighed customer-business growth, highlighting the challenge of translating wealth and institutional banking expansion into more consistent earnings. AI-supported client coverage and workflow changes could help the bank serve more customers while limiting additional costs.

Maybank is seeking to turn relationships built with emerging affluent customers, entrepreneurs and businesses across ASEAN into deeper wealth relationships. Its strategy connects different stages of the wealth journey with cross-border banking, Islamic wealth, external partnerships and technology, while engaging customers earlier and extending relationships to the next generation.

Techcombank is rebuilding its private-banking proposition around a Chief Investment Officer (CIO)-led, advice-first model rather than a premium product tier, aiming to consolidate Vietnam’s fragmented high-net-worth (HNW) balance sheets into managed, intergenerational portfolios.

Emirates NBD reported a 4% increase in profit before tax to AED 24.3 billion (about $6.62 billion) in the first nine months of 2026, supported by lending growth, diversified revenue streams and continued international expansion.

Retail Finance Weekly: Digital banks widened their reach as Revolut gained a New Zealand banking licence and lending growth lifted Grab’s financial services to positive adjusted EBITDA, while consumer credit trends diverged elsewhere.

TAB Africa Weekly Brief: African banks pushed beyond home markets as Nedbank took control of Kenya’s NCBA and Absa entered Dubai, while Moody’s downgraded Senegal on deeper expected restructuring losses for private external creditors.

Citi Private Bank is focusing its regional strategy around multi-jurisdictional family office advisory and institutional balance-sheet integration, testing whether cross-border operational complexity can insulate high-end advisory margins from commoditisation.

Trade disruption, tighter funding conditions and changing policy requirements are complicating corporate banking in Indonesia. At the Indonesia Transaction Banking Forum 2026, regulators, researchers and banking executives examined how banks can strengthen financing, liquidity management and cross-border services while protecting profitability and operational resilience.

Bank Negara Indonesia is integrating payments, financing, foreign exchange and liquidity management to deepen corporate relationships and strengthen its deposit franchise. Export-proceeds requirements and industrial investment offer further opportunities, but transaction growth must translate into sustainable funding and income.

Transaction Finance Weekly: Public guarantees widen trade finance access, while tokenised settlement and on-chain funds make corporate cash available beyond banking hours.

Risk and Capital Weekly Brief: Westpac impairments doubled, Santander’s Webster deal cost 147 basis points of CET1 and euro-area funding access weakened.

TAB Middle East Weekly Brief: Egypt advances bank privatisation and tightens policy, while Gulf lenders grow profits and Bahrain eyes AI-led banking.