Sebastien Avot, head of institutional cash and trade finance, Asia Pacific at Deutsche Bank, explained how the bank is navigating the coexistence of established infrastructures and emerging rails, strengthening resilience in digital ecosystems, and using Sibos Frankfurt 2025 to drive collaboration and standard setting.

Leading financial institutions in Taiwan were recognised for achievements in retail, transaction finance, financial technology and financial markets.

In a wide-ranging conversation ahead of Sibos 2025, Bank of America’s Christian Stolcke, Greg Kavanaugh, Winnie Chen, Phil Carmalt and Terence Tan unpack how macro shifts, rails modernisation, digital assets and operational resilience are reshaping institutional banking and payments across corridors and time zones.

Alan Lee’s leadership at Cathay United Bank strengthened strategic management, advanced digital transformation, empowered employees and promoted sustainable practices, earning him the Best Bank CEO in Taiwan award and the bank’s recognition as the Best Managed Bank in Taiwan.

Jack McDonald, senior vice president of stablecoins at Ripple, shares how the company is approaching regulated stablecoin issuance, cross-border use cases and institutional adoption in Asia Pacific, as regulatory clarity spreads across key markets.

Rising AI risks, regulatory fragmentation and complex supply chains are reshaping the resilience agenda for banks across global markets. Against this backdrop, Standard Chartered is elevating technology resilience to a board-level priority, positioning it as the foundation of long-term trust and the enabler of sustainable growth.

The final day of the China AI Innovation Study Tour took delegates to Huawei’s Songshan Lake campus in Dongguan.

Over five days in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan, the China AI Innovation Study Tour 2025 brought delegates into detailed briefings with leading financial institutions, technology firms and a collaborative innovation centre. The programme showed how artificial intelligence is embedded in platforms, supply chains and compliance frameworks, supported by owned technology stacks and continuous talent development.

In the lead up to Sibos 2025 in Frankfurt, BNY said the focus will be on how global payments and market infrastructure are being reshaped by interoperability, harmonisation, artificial intelligence and instant connectivity.

Delegates of the China AI Innovation Study Tour visited OneConnect, Lexin and WeBank in Shenzhen. Walk-throughs of their headquarters were followed by detailed briefings and discussions that highlighted AI in customer service, lending, risk management and technology export.

The third day of the China AI Innovation Study Tour 2025 in Hangzhou took participants through Ant Group’s growth journey, milestones and AML Centre, PingPong’s 16-storey headquarters, and Zhejiang University’s innovation hub.

As banks and market infrastructures prepare to explore the next frontier of global finance at Sibos 2025 in Frankfurt, Tan Ying Ying, Global Head of Product Management for Financing and Securities Services at Standard Chartered, explained how tokenisation, AI, interoperability and resilience are already reshaping securities services—and why the bank is determined to stay ahead.

RHB is pursuing an integrated retail banking strategy that brings together end-to-end digital onboarding, generative AI for consistent branch service and competitive mortgage products to secure market share in Malaysia’s crowded financial services landscape.

On the second day of the China AI Innovation Study Tour 2025, delegates explored Shanghai’s financial innovation at SPDB, experienced MYbank’s AI-driven SME banking in Hangzhou and witnessed cutting-edge robotics demonstrations at DeepRobotics.

As regulatory expectations rise and greenwashing scrutiny tightens, banks are embedding environmental, social and governance (ESG) into credit, governance, data systems and inclusion strategies — transforming it from a compliance obligation into a core strategy with measurable and accountable frameworks.