Across the Middle East, The Asian Banker’s 2026 Awards reflect banks strengthening wealth management, SME banking, digital lending and business integration through integrated platforms and personalised services.

As Philippine banks expand artificial intelligence (AI) in fraud detection and daily operations, banking and cybersecurity leaders at TAB Finance Philippines mapped a widening set of risks that extend beyond individual institutions, requiring stronger coordination across the financial ecosystem.

This year’s awards recognised Indonesian institutions strengthening wealth management, operational risk, financial inclusion, payments, SME financing and automobile finance through integrated digital platforms and ecosystem-based models.

Retail Finance Weekly: Klarna cuts its 2026 outlook despite returning to profit, Nubank tops $1 billion in quarterly profit and BofA takes a stake in India's Jio Credit.

TAB Africa Weekly Brief: Standard Bank and Absa post stronger first-half earnings, AFC raises $2.5 billion for Dangote's refinery and CHF 350 million via digital bond, and Nigeria opens a new fintech regulatory sandbox.

This year’s awards recognised Thai financial institutions strengthening retail banking, payments, financial inclusion, corporate treasury and customer ecosystems through integrated digital platforms and more connected operating models.

TAB Middle East Weekly Brief: Commercial Bank of Dubai launches multi-bank payment initiation, UAE banking assets grow 17.1% to $1.44 trillion and Coinbase secures Abu Dhabi tokenisation hub approval.

Transaction Finance Weekly: Citi backs $4.6 billion Japan-US power deal, China expands RMB cash pooling and South Korea commits KRW 5 trillion to semiconductor suppliers.

Tommy Leung, head of HSBC Private Bank South Asia, discusses how HSBC Private Bank is combining private banking and corporate and investment banking capabilities to address entrepreneurs’ personal wealth, operating business and succession needs.

Wealth & Society rounds up a week of record results, new product launches and cross-border partnerships, with BTG Pactual posting record profit, China Merchants Bank topping $2.65 trillion in retail assets and Standard Chartered expanding its gold income offering.

Risk and Capital Weekly Brief: Banco do Brasil's agribusiness delinquencies climb, Swiss lawmakers defer UBS's CET1 capital proposal, China's NPL ratio edges up and ABN AMRO's NIBC acquisition trims CET1 headroom.

The Asian Banker Weekly Brief: China's bank lending contracts by a record RMB340 billion, US inflation eases to 3.4%, Japan's GDP growth slows to 0.3% and Bank of America takes a stake in Jio Credit.

Gulf banks saw earnings momentum weaken in the first half of 2026 as slower revenue growth, narrower margins and higher provisions offset resilient credit quality. Emirates NBD, Kuwait Finance House and Qatar National Bank outperformed, while the Iran conflict amplified differences across markets and raised the stakes for loan growth, funding and credit costs in the second half of the year.

Financial Technology Weekly: CBA puts a AUD200 million value on AI benefits, APRA penalises Bendigo Bank over cyber accountability failures, RBI demands AI model inventories from banks and IBM partners with OpenAI on enterprise deployment.

TAB China Weekly Brief: China's exports surge 23.9% on tech demand, the PBOC unveils a five-year policy framework, Chinese banks issue RMB1.3 trillion in capital bonds and CXMT overtakes ICBC and Tencent in market value.