UOB posted SGD 1.4 billion ($1 billion) in first-quarter 2026 net profit as lower lending margins kept pressure on earnings, turning attention from 2025 prudence and Citibank integration to the conversion of 8.5 million ASEAN customers into recurring, fee-led income.

The former chairman of the United States House Financial Services Committee says stablecoins, AI and platform ecosystems are restructuring payments, banking and cross-border finance faster than regulators and institutions fully appreciate, while geopolitical fragmentation increasingly collides with globally connected digital infrastructure.

Standard Chartered is scaling AI through centralised platforms and a governance model built on reusability. Alvaro Garrido, chief operating officer, technology & operations, chief information officer, information security & data, discusses the bank’s AI Factory platform, the SC GPT rollout across 80,000 employees worldwide and how a global AI inventory is disciplining the path to production.

TCF 2026 explored how AI, SaaS and composable banking are reshaping core modernisation strategies, while banks highlighted the burden of keeping large production systems current.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) posted a strong first quarter of 2026. Ala'a Eraiqat, group chief executive officer, and Deepak Khullar, group chief financial officer, discuss a 30% rise in profit before tax, the shift toward fee-based revenue, and the bank's progress on its five-year transformation strategy.

Family offices are reallocating capital, restructuring portfolios and relocating assets across jurisdictions as geopolitical tensions, including the escalating Middle East conflict, reshape global risk perceptions and investment strategies.

CIMB Group is reallocating capital away from Thailand's automotive finance market, with Thailand's share of group risk-weighted assets reduced to 10% in FY25 from 12% a year earlier. The transaction, which transfers two auto financing portfolios to Krungsri Auto, is a further step under CIMB's Forward30 plan.

Capital, flows and risk are expanding beyond borders across infrastructure, transition and supply chains, with integration beginning to shape a more connected financing system.

European banks have quietly closed the gap with their American rivals — and, on some measures of institutional strength, surpassed them, according to the World’s 1000 Strongest Bank Ranking. Yet Commerzbank, Germany’s third largest lender by asset size and strongest bank in Europe, illustrates why improved performance alone cannot substitute for structural reform: until the European banking union moves from ambition to architecture, Europe's gains will remain fragile.

The acquisition of HSBC Indonesia's International Wealth and Premier Banking operations adds 336,000 customers and about 1,300 staff to OCBC Indonesia, the Singapore bank's second purchase of a foreign-owned retail book in the country in two years.

Cathay United Bank is restructuring its cross-border corporate banking model as Taiwanese corporates decentralise production, requiring financing to be structured across jurisdictions, currencies and risk-sharing frameworks.

DBS posted record total income of SGD 5.95 billion ($4.4 billion) in the first quarter of 2026 as falling interest rates compressed lending margins. Tan Su Shan, chief executive officer of DBS, and Chng Sok Hui, chief financial officer, discuss fee income expansion, deposit strategy, AI deployment and the bank's approach to credit risk.

UOB’s foreign direct investment advisory business focuses on enabling companies to enter and expand across ASEAN by connecting them to government agencies, industrial ecosystems and regional corridors before conventional banking relationships are established.

Japanese banks record the strongest gains in the market capitalisation ranking, Chinese megabanks retain scale leadership, while Indian and Indonesian lenders lose ground, and Singapore enters the top tier.

The World Bank's April 2026 Commodity Markets Outlook projects a 16% rise in average commodity prices this year — the first annual increase since 2022 — driven by the near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its cascading effects on energy, fertiliser and metals markets.