Technology analyst Benedict Evans argues that AI's real disruption is not the productivity gain it delivers, but the way it makes once-expensive capabilities cheap enough to dissolve the cost and complexity barriers that protected incumbents.

As benchmark gaps narrow and model prices fall, a broader debate on frontier artificial intelligence points to a new enterprise question: how safely and economically can AI be embedded into institutional data, controls and workflows?

Alliance Bank Malaysia is using digital engagement, ecosystem partnerships and technology investments to position itself as an everyday banking platform for consumers.

Banks no longer lack payment infrastructure. The harder challenge is building an operating model that converts fragmented rails, rising compliance demands and growing fraud risk into better control, stronger customer outcomes and improved returns.

At SuperAI, executives from Bangkok Bank, Minden.ai and Microsoft Asia argued that banks will capture AI value only when they move beyond faster legacy processes and redesign work, skills and controls around earlier and better-governed action on customer signals.

TNEX, VietinBank, BIDV, and Vietcombank were recognised for achievements in digital banking, SME services, wealth management, transaction finance and AI adoption in The Asian Banker Vietnam Awards 2026.

The Asian Banker has recognised ABA Bank as Cambodia’s leading retail bank in 2026, highlighting the institution’s performance in digital innovation, customer engagement and operational resilience in a sector facing post-pandemic stress and market challenges.

Agentic AI is increasingly embedded in fraud detection and payment workflows at major banks. The Financial Stability Board's June 2026 consultation report sets out its first operational framework for governing these systems, with its human oversight recommendations shaped by the limits of what human review can achieve at scale.

Affin Group’s transformation of enterprise risk management reflects how banks are repositioning risk from a compliance function into a more intelligence-led capability embedded directly into strategic decision-making and institutional resilience.

Gerald Goh, co-founder and CEO of Sygnum Asia Pacific, argues that banks should treat crypto and real-world asset tokenisation as a single infrastructure agenda spanning custody, wallets, compliance, settlement and distribution.

Intesa Sanpaolo has launched a bid to acquire Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena in a transaction that would create the Eurozone's second-largest bank by market capitalisation.

As payment initiation shifts into digital ecosystems, transaction banks face a more strategic question than transaction processing itself: whether they still control enough of the customer relationship, data and adjacent commercial opportunity to capture meaningful value.

Banks across Asia Pacific have proven that artificial intelligence (AI) works through pilots and early deployments. The unresolved question is whether their people, processes, and organisational structures can absorb it at enterprise scale — a gap that, alongside legacy systems and fragmented data, is now shaping the pace of adoption.

As real-time payments, artificial intelligence (AI) and rising customer expectations reshape banking, technology infrastructure has moved from a back-office concern to a strategic one. Banks are moving towards cloud-native, modular and resilient platforms, though approaches vary due to legacy complexity, regulatory context and organisational readiness.

Former US Congressman Patrick McHenry argues that AI, digital assets and a more politically responsive regulatory environment will reshape how banks compete.