The Asian Banker Shanghai International AI Finance Summit examined how financial institutions are beginning to industrialise AI across customer engagement, enterprise technology infrastructure and knowledge-driven capability systems that combine human expertise with institutional knowledge.

Alipay leads the 2026 TABInsights World’s Best Financial Platforms Ranking with scale and ecosystem depth, while Revolut shows expansion through customer and multi-service growth. Ecosystem integration, artificial intelligence, local adaptation and regulatory compliance underpin growth and competitive advantage.

Discussions at The Asian Banker Shanghai International AI Finance Summit highlighted how artificial intelligence may transform financial operations, particularly risk management, while raising new questions about governance, explainability and institutional responsibility.

Bank of China (Hong Kong) leads the 2026 TAB Global World’s Best Retail Banks Ranking, ahead of Emirates NBD and First Abu Dhabi Bank, as banks globally shift toward targeted digital investment to convert deposit strength into fee income.

Day 3 of the Shanghai AI Innovation Study Tour and Retreat moved the discussion from the visible surface of artificial intelligence into the harder operational questions underneath it. 

At the Shanghai International AI Finance Summit 2026, economist Zhang Jun and artificial intelligence systems researcher Lin Yonghua argued that China’s shift towards productivity-led growth and intelligent infrastructure will shape the next phase of banking.

Bank of China HK, Nedbank, Standard Chartered HK, WeBank and UOB were recognised for outstanding contributions to retail banking, digital finance, SME banking and wealth management at The TAB Global Excellence in Retail Finance Awards.

Digital banks are moving toward more structured growth, with headline growth moderating but overall expansion remaining strong. Profitability has improved, while balance-sheet management, revenue diversification and operational efficiency are increasingly central to long-term resilience.

Visits to Alibaba’s global headquarters in Hangzhou, including briefings from DingTalk and OceanBase, showed how enterprise platforms, distributed databases and artificial intelligence are supporting the next phase of digital infrastructure and enterprise transformation in China.

Visits to iFlytek, Douyin (ByteDance) and Nio illustrate how China is scaling artificial intelligence across language technology, digital platforms and mobility ecosystems.

Geopolitical risk, regulatory complexity and generational transition are pushing private wealth management into a more fragmented phase — prompting banks and family offices to fundamentally rethink portfolio construction, governance, philanthropy and cross-border strategy.

Qatar National Bank closed 2025 with 10% pre-tax profit growth and a strengthened balance sheet, while launching a renewed 2030 strategy built around GCC connectivity, capital markets depth, and wealth expansion, as Qatar's LNG-driven economic transformation enters its next phase.

CIMB’s SME banking performance in Southeast Asia in 2025 was driven more by transaction capture, deposit stability, and cash-flow visibility than by balance-sheet growth. Lawrence Loh, co-CEO of Group Commercial & Transaction Banking, explains that the bank’s strategy centres on an integrated commercial and transaction banking model, cash-flow-based financing, and digital engagement across its core ASEAN markets.

In the first full year of its six-year Forward30 plan, CIMB Group Holdings delivered net profit of MYR 7.9 billion (approximately $1.7 billion) and an 11.3% return on equity — absorbing persistent rate cuts and Malaysian ringgit appreciation across ASEAN — as its client franchise and fee income businesses outpaced headline income growth.

Strong income generation, disciplined cost management and stable asset quality lifted OCBC’s 2025 profit before tax to $6.8 billion, as rising client deposits increasingly served as the entry point for wealth, treasury and insurance monetisation across the group’s integrated franchise.