Carbon pricing is gaining ground across Asia, with China operating the world's largest emissions-trading system and countries from Japan to Indonesia developing their own schemes. Whether these fragmented efforts can coalesce into a regional market remains an open question—but the economic and climate stakes, for Asia and the world, are enormous.

OCBC is reshaping the future of regional banking across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China and Macau through Velocity and the OCBC Business App – built on a unified digital platform designed to operate consistently across markets. Structured around four pillars — Apply, Transact, Service and Engage — the platform integrates digital identity onboarding, embedded treasury connectivity, authenticated servicing and AI-driven product orchestration into a single regional architecture.

Top digital banks achieve profitability either through disciplined lending execution or by monetising customer ecosystems, not simply by scaling loan growth.

Bank of America’s Global Payments Solutions franchise in Asia Pacific is expanding through double-digit client acquisition, institutional mandates growth and targeted product investments. Beyond regional revenue contribution, the leadership team positioned performance within a globally integrated network model, where balance sheet growth, mandate wins, and client expansion provide further indicators of momentum. The growth strategy rests on network scale, trade and FX innovation, cross-border real-time payments capability and deepening coverage of financial institutions and private capital clients.

Singapore is a major financial centre, managing over $6 trillion in assets under management, hosting the regional headquarters of most global banks, and operating a trusted regulatory environment.

Following a year of falling interest benchmarks and shifting trade corridors, Tan Su Shan set out a view of banking resilience that rests less on credit expansion and more on customer focus, currency diversification and organisational adaptability.

For more than a decade the banking industry has focused on digital transformation. Mobile banking, cloud infrastructure and platform partnerships have reshaped how institutions deliver services. A new phase is now emerging. Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving from experimentation into the operational core of banking.

As artificial intelligence shifts from experimentation to enterprise infrastructure, banks are redefining competitiveness not through algorithms alone but through governance, explainability and economic accountability. Institutions that succeed will be those able to embed machine-assisted decisioning into balance sheet discipline, cross-border execution and client trust.

JPMorgan Chase closed 2025 with $57 billion in net income and a 20% ROTCE, but the results point to a structural shift that will define the bank’s 2026 performance: rate tailwinds that buoyed net interest income are fading, and management is now looking at balance sheet growth, record wealth inflows and AI-driven efficiencies to support growth.

BNY's Global Payments & Trade business in Asia Pacific is scaling institutional infrastructure through embedded AI, integrated foreign exchange execution, virtual account structures and tokenised deposit development — positioning technology as an operational foundation rather than a product overlay.

Banks have invested heavily in cloud infrastructure, digital platforms and artificial intelligence, yet lending operations in many institutions remain slow and fragmented. Will Jung, Chief Technology Officer at nCino, explains why technology investment alone does not transform banking and how operating models, unified data and applied AI must evolve together.

Discussions at the Shanghai International AI Finance Summit 2026 highlighted how Chinese banks are using AI to address structural constraints in SME lending — Jiangsu Su Merchants Bank by industrialising its internal credit workflow, and SPD Bank by restructuring its institutional model to reduce borrower uncertainty before lending begins. Early portfolio indicators look stable, although the risk-adjusted case is still being written.

Zhang Weizhong, Chairman at Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, was recognised as the Retail Finance Leader of the Year in Asia Pacific for 2026 at the TAB Global Excellence in Retail Finance Awards, in Shanghai, China. He leads the bank's digital and intelligent transformation, driving growth in retail assets under management and expanding financial services for over 171 million customers.

China’s economy faces a structural demand contraction. Policymakers are unwilling to resolve it through quantitative easing. The bet is that strategic patience, not aggressive stimulus, creates more durable space for growth. It is a defensible position — but it requires the kind of patience that markets and citizens find hard to sustain.

First Abu Dhabi Bank reported 24% net profit growth and improved operating efficiency, as revenue expansion and disciplined cost management reduced the cost-to-income ratio to 22.4%, reflecting improved operating leverage alongside large-scale AI deployment.