China has the largest green loan balance in the world, estimates place its green loan balance at $3.3 trillion by end of 2022

Indian banks still dominate the list of the top 10 banks with the highest nonperforming loan (NPL)ratio among the 500 largest banks in Asia Pacific, despite the improved asset quality. In addition, the list also includes two banks from Bangladesh and one each from China, Japan, and Pakistan.

QIB’s retail banking business displayed robust growth in 2021, as advanced technologies were used to grow its customer base.

BIBD’s total retail banking contributed more than half of its total income. The bank’s NEXGEN Wallet recorded over 150,000 regular users with an average of $126.9 million (BND 171.7 million) transactions per month that represents 90% of its total retail transactions.

Hatton National Bank expanded its digital footprint through its several initiatives such as the revamped payment application that recorded $2.5 million transaction value and 625,000 transaction volume.

Standard Chartered Hong Kong’s retail banking business registered a strong financial position in 2021, buoyed by accelerated digital transformation. The bank’s quality of customer experience has improved significantly, obtaining a net promoter score (NPS) score of 48 from 32.

ICICI Bank reported strong retail banking performance with improvements in profit growth, return on equity (ROE) and cost to income ratio (CIR) in 2021. The bank’s performance is also supported by its strong digital capabilities developed over the years, and initiatives to deliver better customer experience and digital engagement.

WeBank of China, Ally Bank in the US, and the retail arm of ING Group, topped The Asian Banker's inaugural global ranking of leading digital banks.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), a major global trade and business hub, lands on this year’s list of countries still lacking in progress on anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) efforts. Further advancement on the investigation and prosecution of cases involving dirty money is key to removing the UAE from the so-called grey list. Despite this, the impact on the UAE’s economy is expected to be limited because of its relative strength and stability.

Several organisations have jumped on the metaverse bandwagon with alacrity, investing in technology and digital assets to gain from its potential, but developments are still highly experimental and hindered by complexities.

Multi-CBDCs will allow international settlements on a single platform, streamlining cross-border payments. Project Dunbar offers insights and challenges on how a multi-CBDC platform could potentially solve complex issues in the cross-border payment space. But with the completion of the first phase, more unknowns remain.

Andi Taufan and Aria Widyanto of Amartha shared how their fintech social enterprise is supporting women entrepreneurs in Indonesia to expand their microenterprises. Founded as a microfinance cooperative in 2010, Amartha transformed itself into a financial technology company with a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending model in 2016.

Vietcombank has embarked on a mission to become the number one bank in Vietnam, one of the 100 largest banks in Asia, one of the 300 largest banking and financial groups in the world, and one of the 1,000 largest global listed companies, by 2030.

Vietcombank is one of the first and leading banks in Vietnam to issue and support existing cardholders to convert from magnetic stripe to contactless chip cards

Vietcombank has launched an eKYC function that assists customers to open accounts anywhere at any time, avoiding waiting time at transaction counters