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The rapid transformation of domestic and cross-border payments brings new opportunities and challenges for financial institutions. Amid shrinking payment revenues, players are rethinking their business models to better monetise data insights and integrate financing options such as “buy now, pay later” (BNPL). Practitioners and experts explore the impact of the changing payment landscape, emerging value propositions, and key technology enablers on future growth of the industry.
The directory recognises leading practitioners in financial institutions who are shaping the transaction finance business on the regional and global fronts. The Asian Banker identifies, recognises, and tracks these practitioners on an ongoing basis through its List of Leading Practitioners (LLP) programme. It also profiles international and domestic institutions active in the transaction finance business, and captures key product and service capabilities. It also contains features, commentaries, and analyses that summarise the most pressing issues that the industry and key stakeholders face.
The outlook for the banking industry in 2021 is shaped by persistent and significant risks to asset quality and profitability as the start of COVID-19 vaccination may not ensure even and sustained economic recovery. Meanwhile, how are the balance sheets of banks in Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa affected by the pandemic? The 2020 Asian Banker 500 annual ranking of the largest and strongest banks has incorporated the latest financial data to reflect the impact of the pandemic on banks financial performance during the course of the crisis.
In this 2020-2021 edition of the Asia Pacific Leaders in Financial Technology Directory and Handbook, we are pleased to share an updated and comprehensive guide to leading institutions and practitioners in the industry in the Asia Pacific region. The Asian Banker recognises the men and women who are shaping technology and businesses on both regional and global fronts and whose work and influence are relevant to the Asia Pacific and other regions through its List of Leading Practitioners (LLP) programme. The directory also contains a feature on Big Tech companies’ expansion into financial services, and analyses of the latest banking and financial technology developments and trends that summarise the most pressing issues that the industry and key stakeholders face today.
Leadership in times of crisis is very different from leading in normal times. The challenge for leaders is to adjust to radically new situations and changed circumstances where the tried and tested may not work and playbooks do not exist. In this issue, we profile leaders (Leadership achievement special report from pages 22 to 40) who have to take exceptional measures under extraordinary circumstances to communicate and execute their responses.
The retail financial services industry continues to undergo a process of transformation in terms of how it is connecting and servicing customers. The disruption from fintech players and platform providers reverberates across the industry as new ecosystems are formed and distinct competitive advantages are realised through the application of emerging technologies. The top 10 banks evaluated from this year’s programme of more than 100 institutions for the “Best Retail Bank in 2020” completely reflect this paradigm shift.
The novel coronavirus has proven to be much more virulent and deadly than initially assessed. The priorities now are to revive sectors, especially small businesses that have been worst hit, to restore jobs and the livelihoods of workers and to reconfigure the economy for a post COVID-19 world. There will be long-term implications that will permanently change how the global economy, international trade, commerce and financial system will operate in the future. The financial system is expected to accelerate its digital transformation and the adoption of online and remote transactions.
In Asia Pacific, the first generation of internet and direct banks were introduced in Australia and Japan where ING Direct and Japan Net Bank were respectively launched in 2000. However, when mobile and API technology came of age, the landscape was transformed by Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba and Tencent. WeBank, the digital banking subsidiary of Tencent started operating in China back in 2015. As more jurisdictions recognise that financial services will become increasingly digitalised, similar regulations have also been issued in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. It is expected that more regulators in the region will follow suit as the interest in digital financial services grows as reflected in the funding attracted by players from the private sector and venture capitalists.
Compressed margins and bad debts will curtail bank profits in 2020
Outlook for the banking industry in Asia Pacific turns negative as region confronts weaker economic, investment and trade conditions
The strong wealth creation growth in China is changing the distribution of wealth across Asia Pacific.By 2024, the number of UHNW individuals in the Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at an average of 8% per annum, to reach a total of nearly 66,000, of whom 42% will be from China. As a result the wealth management market in the region is undergoing major shifts from fixed-income investment to multi-asset investment, from the domestic market to the global markets, from short-term speculation to long-term horizon, from single products and opportunities to diversified portfolios, from wealth generation by first-generation entrepreneurs to succession by the second generation of wealth managers.
The directory recognises leading practitioners who are shaping the business on the regional and global fronts, and whose work or influence are relevant to the Asia Pacific and other regions. The Asian Banker identifies, recognises, and tracks these practitioners on an ongoing basis through its List of Leading Practitioners (LLP) programme. It also profiles international and domestic institutions active in the transaction banking business, and captures key product and service capabilities. It also contains features, commentaries, and analyses that summarise the most pressing issues that the industry and key stakeholders face. By bringing together under one programme and directory these leading industry experts, The Asian Banker creates an avenue for practitioners to create linkages with each other across institutions,
borders, and business lines.
As Chinese banks continue to dominate the list of largest banks, others in Asia Pacific face mounting pressure to sustain performance. The slowing economic growth and the ongoing US-China trade tension are posing a risk for Asia Pacific banking sector. Banks are also facing fiercer competition from new comers. Nonetheless, the banks in the region have been continuing their digital transformation and reshaping the business models to boost competitiveness.
In this 2019-2020 edition of the Asia Pacific Leaders in Financial Technology Directory and Handbook, we are pleased to share an updated and comprehensive guide to leading institutions and practitioners in the industry in the Asia Pacific region. The Asian Banker recognises the men and women who are shaping technology and businesses on both regional and global fronts and whose work and influence are relevant to the Asia Pacific and other regions through its List of Leading Practitioners (LLP) programme. The directory also contains features, commentaries and analyses that summaries the most pressing issues that the industry and key stakeholders face today
In searching for leaders who best exemplify the future of the financial services industry that is being dramatically transformed by regulation, technology and new business models, The Asian Banker looks for leaders who have the vision to navigate the challenges that confront their individual organisations and the industry as a whole. Leaders who understand that banks and bankers occupy a position of trust and confidence, and that this is constantly under siege.
The Asian Banker has been tracking, evaluating and calibrating financial institutions that are on the journey to transform themselves into more competitive digital players. We assess the preparedness of institutions to compete and win in the digital world. We rank and calibrate different types of institutions: commercial banks, digital only banks, platform-based marketplace players, financial technology companies and others, in how effective they are at embracing disruption and innovating.
Platforms and ecosystems are the latest buzzwords in the financial services industry. Banks and financial institutions that have traditionally operated as monoliths, owning huge proprietary distribution and sales networks and being part of largely opaque industry associations, are now embracing open ecosystems, platforms and learning to create communities of loyal active users around them.
A recent study by Ptolemus shows that the mobile UBI market has grown to 4.8 million policyholders as of the second quarter of 2018, representing almost a quarter of the total. It expects the global market for mobile UBI to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 39% up to 2025 to reach 60 million users, and much of that will come from Asia Pacific, and China in particular.
The World Bank in its January 2019 Global Economic Prospects report, ominously subtitled “Darkening Skies”, warned that “financial market pressures and trade tensions could escalate, denting confidence and further setting back growth prospects in emerging market and developing countries”. This year, global economic growth is expected to slow further in a majority of advanced economies and in about a third of emerging market and developing economies.
In this issue, we focus on the business of managing wealth in Asia Pacific. According to the World Wealth Report 2018, Asia Pacific’s share of global high net worth individual (HNWI) wealth in 2017 has surpassed that of North America to reach 30.8%, and continues to grow faster than any other region.
In this 2018/19 edition of the Asia Pacific Leaders in Financial Institutions and Transaction Banking Directory, we are pleased to update this comprehensive guide to leading institutions and practitioners in the industry in the Asia Pacific region. The directory recognises leading practitioners- men and women who are shaping the business on the regional and global fronts, and whose work or influence are relevant to the Asia Pacific and other regions.
As economies become increasingly digitalised, the global online marketplace and ecommerce
platforms such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple (GAFA) and Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, (BAT) which boast billion sized customer bases and trillion-dollar capitalisation, have become more serious about their foray into financial services. They will further fragment the structure of global finance and no doubt diminish the role of banks, even globally systemically important ones. If so, when do these mega tech firms come under the same regulatory scrutiny and oversight?
New technologies and operating models continue to transform the financial services industry in Asia Pacific, driving institutions to re-evaluate their existing technology platforms, applications and re-design their processes to improve customer experience. In this 2018/19 edition of the Asia Pacific Leaders in Banking and Financial Technology Directory and Handbook, we are pleased to update this comprehensive guide to leading practitioners who are shaping technology and business on the regional and global fronts.
In this issue, we profile the winners of Asian Banker Leadership Achievement Awards and turn our attention to people who not only run their institutions exceptionally well, made real and lasting changes to the financial systems and economies but also forever transformed the countries that they operate in. This year’s William “Bill” Seidman Award for Lifetime Achievement in Leadership in the Financial Services Industry awards were presented to two highly regarded central bankers, Zhou Xiaochuan, former governor of the People’s Bank of China, and Zeti Akhtar Aziz, former governor of Bank Negara Malaysia.
They have put their focus on the people most affected by their actions and decisions. The overall impact had been on the real economy and they have worked hard to keep faith with their countrymen.
This year, we have developed a methodology to track, evaluate and rank financial institutions on the journey to transform themselves into highly competitive digital players. It assesses the preparedness of institutions to compete and win in the digital world. We have found that digital finance institutions possess diverse business and operating models, ranging from pure online/mobile only players to online-offline hybrids to collaborations with small agent networks to specialised units within more conventional banks.
In this special edition, we feature Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, who writes about the threat that the web is facing and the future of the internet and technology. Berners-Lee is the keynote speaker at The Future of Finance Summit 2018 from 23rd to 25th May in Beijing, China, where he discusses key trends that will impact businesses that operate on the web, including financial institutions, as well as the implications of new data privacy regulations such as Europe's General Data Protection Regulation to the rest of the world.
Despite concerns over the unbridled speculation that has inflated the value of cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings, many governments have embarked on cryptocurrency initiatives that may render them legal tender in the not too distant future. Meanwhile, the march away from cash and cheques continues at an unrelenting pace. And we have a lot to thank the technology disruptors such as Safaricom (MPesa), Alibaba and Tencent for. From a practical perspective, they have finally broken the barrier to access cashless payments for literally billions of people in the underdeveloped and developing economies, long neglected by the incumbent financial services industry.
How will the industry fare as global and regional economic conditions improve? How long will it last? What key risks and challenges lie ahead? Overall, global macro-conditions are generally positive and we are seeing quite an unprecedented phase of synchronised growth across the major continents. So favourable are conditions that some economists are
characterising them as “Goldilocks” – just right. Just as in the popular bedtime story, there is a moral and sinister side to it. The cosy conditions do not last long before the “bears” return. With the confluence of positive factors will markets be lulled into a state of “excessive exuberance” that numbs the dangers of the current pace of asset appreciation and accumulation of financial leverage, or should this instead be a time to look out for the returning bears?
New technologies and business operating models continue to transform the banking space in Asia Pacific, driving players to focus more on innovation and design in order to improve operational efficiency and customer experience. In this 2017/18 edition of the Asia Pacific Leaders in Banking Technology Directory and Handbook, we are pleased to update this comprehensive guide to leading practitioners who are shaping their organisations and businesses on the regional and global fronts.
Cryptocurrencies, in particular bitcoin, have been hogging media headlines recently. In the US, the first futures contracts for bitcoin started trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) on 11 December 2017, one of two venues that the US Commodity and Futures Trading Commission had approved to do so on 1 December 2017. The other is the venerable Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) which started a week later.
No doubt there will be close attention paid to how bitcoin will perform in its first few days of futures trading. But on a wider perspective, will this bring cryptocurrencies into the mainstream? Is the CFTC approval a stamp of legitimacy for cryptocurrencies?
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. In this 2017/18 edition of the Asia Pacific Leaders in Financial Institutions and Transaction Banking Directory, we are pleased to update this comprehensive guide to leading institutions and practitioners in the region, who are shaping their businesses on the regional and global fronts.
The Asian Banker 500 is the financial services industry's most comprehensive annual evaluation of the strength, quality and sustainability of the balance sheets of banks in Asia Pacific. Despite the strength of their balance sheets, banks in the region continue to face massive challenges in growing profits, a conundrum created by modern capital rules. In this issue, we also speak to Renu Satti, CEO of Paytm Payments Bank, a new generation bank in India that espouses value creation by focusing on solving problems that the customer faces and designing products and services with “extreme customer focus”.
In this issue, we profile the winners of The Asian Banker Leadership Achievement Awards, a programme that we run once every three years, as well as the first Innovation Leadership awards. We turn our attention to the new breed of young leaders who are navigating the less chartered waters of financial inclusion through technology and the power of the network in the new digital economy. This issue also includes proceeding reports from The Future of Finance Summit 2017.
This year's Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards programme marks the start of the transition that the industry is making from the traditional business and operating model to a digital and network-enabled customer centric proposition and documents how emerging best practice and performance in this new evolving landscape will need to be re-defined and measured
In this issue, dedicated to the Future of Finance Summit, we cast our eyes over some of the key transformative topics that are shaping the industry’s prospects.
We start with an update on blockchain or distributed ledger technology, followed by interviews with Vladislav Solodkiy, founder and managing partner of Life.SREDA, a
leading venture capital firm with a remarkable portfolio comprising challenger banks such as Moven, Simple and Fidor; former US congressman Barney Frank, the joint architect
of the Dodd-Frank Act, on his views on the prospective wave of deregulation that is sweeping through the banking industry in the US. And finally, we speak with the founders of two leading online marketplace lending institutions, Soul Htite of China-based Dianrong.com and Ron Suber of US-based Prosper Marketplace.
In this issue, we cast our eyes on one of the technologies that will transform the face of banking: artificial intelligence and robotics. Enabled by artificial intelligence and machine learning, robots are potential game changers that can bring unique operational efficiencies to the financial services industry. See how the industry is witnessing an exponential growth in the use of robots that is rapidly moving beyond ‘early adoption’ to maturity in scale.
As Trump casts his long shadow over global trade, will his brazen
style bring the world into a deeper economic quagmire? The outlook for the banking industry in Asia Pacific will continue to be challenging, with conditions
deteriorating from a year ago, exacerbated by increasing uncertainties over the global geopolitical landscape and the prospect of worsening trade relations between the world’s leading nations as a consequence of the election of the new US president Donald Trump.
In this issue, we analyse the implications of RMB joining SDR and its effect on offshore renminbi centres around the world. We have also included our annual Global Offshore RMB Assets Ranking where we evaluate leading financial institutions and RMB-dominated businesses outside of China. The focus on International Financial Reporting Standards 9 (IFRS 9) points out the challenges that banks face to meet the January 2018 deadline and their approach in integrating risk and finance models to enable its successful adoption. We also look at how transaction banks are reviewing their value propositions in view of the difficult financial conditions that are disrupting their businesses.
The 2016 edition of the most comprehensive reference resource for leading practitioners in the financial institutions and transaction banking business.
The Asian Banker 500 rankings continue to evolve as the financial services industry's most comprehensive annual evaluation of the strength, quality and sustainability of the balance sheets of banks in the Asia Pacific. This year’s rankings include the biggest and strongest 100 banks in the Middle East and Africa.
In this issue, we profile the winners of The Asian Banker Leadership Achievement Awards, a programme that we run once every three years. We turn our attention to leaders who not only run their individual banks exceptionally well but have made a real change to the countries they operate in. They have fought hard to support businesses that are close to the heart of their customers, building "flow business" as they follow customers'
expansion across the region, diversifying their revenue sources as well as building new digital banking platforms. The overall impact has been on the real economy and they have worked hard to keep faith with their customer base. We also have a special report on the recently held annual Asian Banker Summit during which we explored the latest transformational issues that are shaping the future of finance, why and how the industry is looking at "Reinventing the banking model" and much more.
This year's Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards programme focuses on the deep transformation occurring in the industry from digitisation and financial technology (fintech) disruption. Explore how leading retail banks are responding to the evolving landscape.
The attention that blockchain and distributed ledger technology has attracted from the global financial services industry has grown exponentially in recent times. As with all new and emerging technologies, there will be periods of development, prototyping, launches and failures before it matures and achieves full commercial implementation. Meanwhile, there will be losers and winners amongst those who will join the quest to make it a commercial reality. In this issue, we showcase 100 of the leading blockchain use cases and initiatives from around the world. We also feature an interview with US congressman Barney Frank, former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee on his views on the evolution of bank regulation and new order that is emerging in the banking and financial services world.
Will China have a hard landing?
As China’s GDP ground to its slowest pace in 25 years, there are genuine concerns about its impact on the region’s
economies and financial markets. How will slower growth and the possibility of worsening corporate debt impact regional markets?
The banking and financial services industry in the Middle East and Africa is being transformed by the growing trade and business flows between West and East as well as rising cross-border commerce.
As countries in the region transition from emerging to more developed markets, there will be new opportunities for financial institutions to grow into regional and international leaders.
It is clear that China's goal of becoming the world's largest economy by 2020 and the internationalisation of the RMB are two initiatives that are symbiotic in nature. With the recent IMF decision to include the currency in the SDR currency basket, what does the future hold for the RMB?
Today’s risk and compliance professionals are operating amid an evolving regulatory backdrop and dynamic threat landscape that require strengthened systems of internal control and oversight. While resources are being deployed to deter corporate misconduct, corruption, money laundering, terrorism financing, fraud and cyber-attacks, banks and corporates continue to fall behind in ensuring that their institutions have a holistic 360 degree view on financial crime.
The directory recognises men, women, and institutions who shape the world of transaction banking today. It also contains features, commentaries, and analyses that summarize the most pressing issues that the industry and key stakeholders face.
The Asian Banker 500 ranking continues to evolve as the financial services industry's most comprehensive annual evaluation of the strength, quality and sustainability of the balance sheets of banks in the Asia Pacific. This year we have also included the ranking of the biggest and strongest 100 banks in the Middle East and Africa.
In this issue, we profile the winners of Asian Banker Leadership Achievement Awards, people who run their banks exceptionally well and make a real change to the countries that they are operating in. We recognise the founding chairman of Malaysia’s Public Bank, Teh Hong Piow with the William “Bill” Seidman Lifetime Achievement award. The CEO of Thailand’s TMB Bank, Boontuck Wungchareon with the Best CEO of the Year and TMB Bank with the Best Managed Bank awards. And Joseph Huang, president of Taiwan’s E.SUN Bank and Amit Sethi, CIO of India’s Axis Bank, are Transaction Banker and CIO of the Year respectively.
From this year’s Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards programme, we have identified the top bank in each country that exemplified excellence and outstanding achievements in their retail banking businesses. These banks engender visionary leadership, long-term forward-looking strategy and excellent execution capabilities.
This year’s Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards programme has grown in coverage. The scope and scale of our coverage of the retail banking industry in the Middle East and Africa has evolved to such an extent that the award programme is attaining a truly global scale.
In this Asian Banker Summit edition that looks at “Retaking the Future of Finance”, we look at the role that regulators and governments play in securing the stability of the financial system post global financial crisis, as well as the future of the supply chain, an important driver of economic growth in Asia.
The Banking Industry Outlook 2015 shows that regional banks are shoring up their ability to diversify funding sources while mitigating potential liquidity mismatch for domestic and foreign currency liabilities as they build up their liquidity buffers.
This celebratory edition recognises the most important developments in the Korea financial services industry today. It showcases banks who have emerged with best practices and documents case studies on them that can become benchmarks for future decision-makers to draw upon. The programme is an annual recognition of the best banks in Korea across product lines and infrastructure capabilities.
Financial crime is a hotbed topic covering a wide scope, with impact on multiple levels. They often result not only in tangible financial loss to financial institutions but deeper reputation damage. Banks in the Asia Pacific region have to take a more holistic approach to developing safeguards.
The Bank Watch List was introduced in last year’s Asian Banker 500 ranking to highlight the risks that some of the region’s fast-growing banks, especially those in China, pose to the financial system given a potential downturn in the credit cycle. In the last 12 months, China’s slowing economy and growing credit bubble have combined to bring the problem to the fore.
Banks that have already leapt on the digital bandwagon finding out that the competition is intense, from both other banks and even non-banks with the latter turning out to be incredibly innovative. How can traditional FIs break out and ride this wave?
In conjunction with our Leadership Achievement Awards Edition and the presentation of The Asian Banker Promising Young Banker Award for the Asia Pacific Region to Sandhya Devanathan (Managing Director & Head of Credit Cards and Unsecured Loans – Standard Chartered Bank Singapore), this special issue takes a look at the issue of leadership and how women are faring in this role.
In this year’s Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards programme, we identified the top bank in each country that performed with distinction to achieve exceptional success in their retail banking businesses. This special issue profiles eight outstanding examples of this year’s best retail banks, which are becoming more efficient and integrated in their operations, processes, technology and people management.
This special edition delivers detailed reports from the Excellence programme including proceedings from the Heads of Retail Financial Services meeting and the FutureBank Innovation Tour held in conjunction with the award ceremony which took place in Sydney, Australia. Details of the Excellence programme include the evaluation criteria and scorecards, and profiles of the winning organisations which can be used as benchmarks and best practices to track and reflect excellence in the retail financial services industry.
With cross-border integration promising a bigger marketplace for Southeast Asian companies, greater scale and proficiency is needed to compete on a global scale. Asean needs to be a more open marketplace and take to heart lessons that can be learnt from the EU, in order to compete with fast-growing economies like India and China. This issue explores the opportunities and challenges that accompany financial integration.
Local banks are getting a bigger slice of the wealth management business in the region. The robust pace and depth of economic development in Asia has led to the emergence of a new breed of wealthy and high net worth clients. While the fee potential from the wealth management business is attractive, it is also a notoriously expensive business to run. Banks will have to completely rethink their operating models.
Asia Pacific economies have undergone a transformation centred on a reorientation towards China and its increasingly domestic consumption-led growth. But fault lines in China’s burgeoning economy are starting to show.
In 2014, the Asia Pacific banking industry will be dominated by the sustainability of G3 recovery as well as the concrete outcomes from financial and economic reforms taking place in the region even as growth looks set to moderate.
This edition profiles the winners of the inaugural Technology Implementation Awards Korea. It showcases leading technology innovations and important developments in the Korea financial services industry. The programme is an annual recognition of the best technology implementation projects and case-studies in the country.
M&A deals in the Asia Pacific region may seem to be in a decline since 2011, yet what lies beneath is that the deals are not being closed as quickly as before partly due to limits national regulators are putting on the ownership of domestic banks by foreign banks. Beyond bank mergers, this issue also looks at the evolving role of the chief risk officer in influencing strategic business decisions and embedding a holistic risk culture in the organisation, and how banks in Asia are transforming their risk management practices to face a more demanding and intrusive regulatory environment.
Now into its 12th iteration, The Asian Banker 500 ranking continues to evolve as the financial services industry’s most comprehensive annual evaluation of the strength, quality and sustainability of the balance sheets of banks in the Asia Pacific. This year’s rankings again see Hong Kong banks coming out strong, with Singapore and Malaysian banks such as OCBC, UOB and Maybank also achieving big leaps forward.
Today, the payments world stands at the cusp of another technological breakthrough with the advent ever-smarter mobile technology. These will have an exponential effect on the way we connect, interact and do our banking. In this issue, we look at initiatives around Asia Pacific that are positioning mobile-based payments as the next frontier that will make cashless peer-to-peer transactions a reality.
Many CEOs today are faced with the challenge of sustaining growth while at the same time having to deal with increasingly intrusive regulations, an unrelenting pace of competition as well as mounting pressure on margins.
Don't miss this issue in order to find out how our recent survey of CEO remuneration shows that the best performing banks in the region are run by CEOs whose remuneration is largely based on the ability to meet the performance targets set by their boards.
In this year’s Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards programme, we identified the top bank in each country that performed with distinction to achieve exceptional success in their retail banking businesses. This special issue profiles six outstanding examples of this year’s best retail banks, which are becoming more efficient and integrated in their operations, processes, technology and people management.
This issue is dedicated to showcasing the outcome of the Excellence programme, including proceedings from the Heads of Retail Financial Services meeting and Excellence conference held in conjunction with the award ceremony which took place in Seoul, South Korea from March 20th to 22nd 2013. Read to find complete details of the award programme, including the evaluation criteria and scorecards, profiles of winning organisations and best practices that aim to track and reflect excellence in the retail financial services industry.
Intra-regional trade and business flows have been growing at a tremendous pace in Asia, yet this has not made the region immune to the effects of global economic and regulatory changes. Asian banks in particular will have to confront new capital and liquidity standards that will increase the cost of doing business. These are some of the challenges that senior bank executives will be confronting at the Asian Banker Summit 2013 (the Summit) held in Jakarta, Indonesia from April 23 to 25, which focuses on the prospects of increased regional integration
Asian Banker Research found more than one-third of IT projects carried out were aimed at improving customer experience, as banks begin to realise that real differentiation in the marketplace is driven by how well customers feel they are treated. The triumvirate of competition, regulation and customer expectation is moving them to adopt more customer-centric operating models -
and technology and innovation become key to improving customer experience.
Despite 2012 being rocky for the global financial services industry, Asia Pacific banks weathered the storm well, chalking up impressive growth. Can they sustain the momentum in 2013? In this issue, Manu Bhaskaran, one of Asia's most respected economists shares his perspective on the challenges facing the region today as we turn the spotlight on key themes that provide opportunities for growth as well as highlight areas that continue to be sources of risks and challenges.
In a recent survey conducted by The Asian Banker, close to 70% of respondents indicated less than desirable levels of integration between risk and finance functions in their organisations. Despite regulatory pressure, many banks have not embraced the mind-set change required for a more holistic risk management framework. The Risk Management Special Report looks at the best practices and achievements of five banks and delves into the challenges they faced in implementing their risk management solutions as well as the benefits they were able to gain as a result.
In this issue, we look at the Top 500 largest and strongest banks in the Asia Pacific region, examining the unique and best-in-class approach to determining bank strength and profile banking systems across 14 countries.
The strength of Asian banks, including a few of the smaller banks in the Top 20, continues to be underpinned by solid lines of business growth and profitability, strong financial bases and sound risk management practices, as reflected in their officially published financial numbers.
Domestic banks in the Asia Pacific region have grown their transaction banking business rapidly, averaging 34% YoY growth in 2011 and are starting to reap the fruits of their labour. With this issue, The Asian Banker presents a special report featuring the results of a Transaction Banking Satisfaction Survey conducted among leading international and domestic banks.
Pioneering efforts by innovators in banking have created quite a buzz over the last few years, but efforts have not yet yielded clear ROI benefits. Within the industry there is a widely held belief that banks from developed economies tend to be more strategic innovators while banks in Asia prefer to follow an incremental approach. What is hindering Asian banks?
Issues of sovereign debt, currency revaluations and trading losses continue to dog the global economy while many banks continue to re-focus on the basics of retail banking services. The result has been a surge in modern channels of retail, such as mobile and internet banking. We've also seen an increased focus on wealth management and private banking due to the tremendous growth in the number of high net worth individuals in Asia. In all roles, technology seems to be playing a key role as financial institutions strive to provide better, more efficient services, at lower cost.
Asia's best banks and their success mantra With the current global financial crisis having far-reaching effects, renewed interest has been shown on how banks evolve and re-build trust with their customers. The Asian Banker's Excellence in Retail Financial Services Programme embarked on a journey to unravel the success stories of 2011 and present them to our customers. This special edition of our publication is dedicated to bringing to life these very stories, as well as the faces and initiatives behind them.
Grupo Santander shares information on the path towards growing a bank globally – Find out the lessons Asian Banks can learn. Discover how emerging markets drive Egypt’s economy, and China’s off-balance sheet loans surge. Pick up on lessons learnt from the MF Global disaster, and how Asian markets will fare in the face of decreased EU lending. Asian Banker Research also presents its outlook on the Asia Pacific region for 2012. All this and more in the latest issue of The Asian Banker Journal.
Our list of the 500 largest banks in the region, ranked first by asset size and then according to our updated strength ranking; with 14 country capsules, our report on renminbi internationalisation, and a report on the challenges the region’s international businesses are facing in the face of global business volatility.
Asia feels Europe's pain as the debt crisis that is spreading its rot there makes itself felt globally, impacting liquidity and confidence and triggering what might may be a new crisis; The Asian Banker's annual dividend report, an inspection of IT system, data and channel challenges, and an interview with Gulf Bank CEO Michel Accad.
This year’s Asian Banker Leadership Achievement Awards recognises the region’s top banks, bankers, risk managers and regulators, as well as the promising young bankers from around the region that will form the next generation of bank leadership.
The results of our retail banking awards, with 23 country capsules, breakdowns of regional and global best practices along product lines, and a profile on Retail Banker of the Year Jonathan Larsen, regional head of retail banking at Citibank in Asia Pacific.
The List of Leading Practitioners issue, carrying profiles of the top bankers in eight categories: industry stalwarts, bank heads, regional heads of large banks, and industry regulators, as well as business and operational heads in the banks, covering transactional and retail banking, and risk management and IT and operations.
As their clients globalise, Chinese banks struggle for transaction banking capacity; banks are finding business drivers to push an integrated approach for risk management; an interview with DBS CEO Piyush Gupta on starting to see successes in rebuilding his institution one year into the job.
Featuring an 8-page research note on the online payments model of Japan's Rakuten Bank, our assessment of innovation drivers in retail financial services, and exclusive data on e-commerce in the Asia Pacific region.
Global transaction banking heads express their concerns over impact of Basel III; we present our scorecard for evaluating bank supervisors; JCB International CEO Sannomiya Koremitsu; Interview with HE Ahmed Humaid Al Tayer, chairman of Emirates NBD, on the Dubai World fallout and Asia expansion.
Our list of the 500 largest banks by assets and the 500 strongest banks in the region; with 14 country capsules and an interview with SBI chairman OP Bhatt.
Featuring the proceedings of the 11th Asian Banker Summit in Singapore, a retrospect of the significant speakers and guests from the past Summits, the Leadership Dialogue attended by the industry’s key thinkers and the award ceremonies that featured industry benchmark projects.
Our Asian Banker Leadership Achievement and Strongest Banks Awards edition, celebrating the best bankers, regulators and institutions to emerge from the financial crisis.
Local banks and corporates are pushing for innovation and diversification from the global giants, Asian banks aren't too worried about capital changes from upcoming Basel III regulations, and Jiang Jianqing, chairman of ICBC, discusses his 30 year plan.
Banks are failing in their use of social media; local and regional banks are feeling the pinch from the crisis; an interview with Bank of the Philippine Islands CEO Aurelio Montinola III on how he improved the bank’s cross-sell to a growing customer base.
Our list of Asia’s best banks for investors with a focus on total shareholder return; banks are learning to cope with new investor priorities; interview with Bank of East Asia CEO David Li on the lessons from the bank run and his bank’s expansion strategy
This year’s banking industry outlook report highlights the need to mobilise capital to chase consolidation and regionalisation; the second decade of Asia’s century will start with major changes as domestic banks aim for a regional footprint; with 17 country capsules.
Performance-based pay growing in importance for Asia's 50 best-paid CEOs; as the search for a proper balance of risk and reward as a growing concern, some of the answers may be found at Asia Pacific banks; with the list for the biggest and strongest banks in the Middle East
The chairmen of three of the world’s largest banks talk to us about their post-crisis strategies; HSBC’s Green expects the global bank to be more Asia emerging markets-focussed, BBVA’s Gonzalez reflects on lessons learned from victory and defeat, while Wells Fargo’s Kovacevich speaks about the merger with Wachovia.
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