The TABInsights Islamic Banks Rankings highlight stronger financials in Middle Eastern banks, particularly in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, while Asian institutions remain smaller and less profitable. Islamic banks are strengthening balance sheets amid evolving risk and governance priorities.

This recognition validates the bank’s excellence in transaction banking and underscores its achievements in helping corporate clients build fund pools, optimise cash flows, mitigate liquidity risks and maximise investment returns worldwide.

Cathay United Bank was recognised with five awards at The Asian Banker 2025 Awards, underscoring its leadership in digital transformation, AI innovation, data analytics, mobile banking and overall governance. The bank’s achievements reflect its commitment to customer-centricity, operational excellence, and sustainable growth across Asia.

Northern Trust is developing the infrastructure needed for large institutions to adopt digital assets at scale. Justin Chapman, executive vice president and global head of strategic partnerships, Digital Assets and Financial Markets, explains how the bank is extending its servicing model through the Matrix Zenith platform to support the next phase of tokenisation.

Bank of America's Siddharth Gupta, head of Financial Institutions Group for Asia Pacific, and George Fong, head of trade finance for Asia Pacific set out priorities on digital documentation, automation, interoperability and event-driven settlement as global trade moves towards a more structured digital model.

At Hong Kong FinTech Week 2025, Zodia Custody managing director for Singapore and Hong Kong Deborah Algeo discussed how the firm supports institutions in tokenising real-world assets, strengthening custody infrastructure, and embedding regulatory compliance across the region’s growing digital-finance ecosystem.

At Singapore FinTech Festival 2025, UOB’s head of enterprise AI, Alvin Eng, explained how the bank is moving from experimentation to production-grade AI systems through disciplined governance, lifecycle oversight and cross-functional accountability — a shift reflecting rising regulatory expectations.

As Hong Kong sharpens its digital asset regulation, Hex Trust is positioning itself as a key institutional infrastructure provider bridging traditional finance and blockchain. At Hong Kong FinTech Week, CEO Alessio Quaglini discussed how secure custody, regulatory clarity and technological convergence are reshaping digital finance.

At the Singapore FinTech Festival 2025, Nethermind’s Delane Foo outlined why institutional tokenisation on public Web3 infrastructure is still constrained by opaque, protocol-layer processes—and why visibility from wallet to settlement is becoming essential for financial institutions entering on-chain environments.

Legislative reforms and industry standards are accelerating digital trade. Structured documentation, automated verification and interoperable systems are forming the basis for conditional execution across global supply chains.

At the Singapore FinTech Festival 2025, Nicole Sandler, head of corporate and regulatory affairs at the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology, outlined the UK’s stability-first strategy for regulating stablecoins, global divergence in reserve and redemption models, and preparations ahead of the 2026 dual-track regime.

Quantum computing is still emerging, but its security implications have entered the financial system’s planning horizon. Banks and regulators are now confronting the multi-year task of mapping cryptographic exposure, modernising architecture and coordinating ecosystem-wide migration to quantum-safe standards

Mastercard is scaling responsible AI across its global payments network through privacy-by-design, ethical guardrails and accountability structures. Derek Ho, deputy chief privacy, AI & data responsibility officer, explains how these foundations help high-risk systems move from pilot to production safely and in line with regulatory expectations.

Violas Xiao, CEO of XTransfer Singapore, explains how AI, data and ecosystem partnerships are shaping the company’s cross border payments infrastructure as it expands across ASEAN.

Standard Chartered is deepening the operational rigour of its AI programme, strengthening governance, consolidating platforms and sharpening measurement practices as it scales high-value use cases across 41 markets. Alvaro Garrido outlines how the bank is refining the discipline and architecture needed for enterprise-wide deployment.