Retail Finance Weekly: Ant Group consolidated Alipay and Zhima Credit for AI commerce, PhonePe secured in-principle UAE approval, Revolut applied for a Swiss banking licence and six banks published principles for AI agent purchases.

TAB Middle East Weekly Brief: QIA signed a $20 billion partnership with JP Morgan Asset Management, Gulf central banks raised rates after the Fed, PIF launched the Tawrid supply chain platform and AWS confirmed unrecoverable cloud losses in Bahrain and the UAE.

Transaction Finance Weekly: The Eurosystem launched Pontes for tokenised asset settlement, Partior and LSEG DiSH built a multi-bank liquidity framework, HSBC expanded cross-border cash pooling in China and NPCI introduced a UPI merchant fee framework.

MUFG’s Richard Yorke said the next phase of its corporate and investment banking strategy in Asia Pacific will focus on generating stronger returns from client relationships, increasing distribution and connecting financing with transaction banking, global markets and capital markets.

MUFG's Belinda Han said the bank wants to translate its regional footprint and ASEAN partner-bank network into a more integrated transaction banking franchise, capturing a greater share of clients' payments, collections, liquidity, trade and working-capital flows as intra-Asia business expands.

Partior CEO Humphrey Valenbreder said interoperability between banks, settlement institutions and different forms of commercial-bank money could reduce reliance on pre-funded bilateral accounts as the industry works to make 24/7 cross-border settlement more efficient.

Risk and Capital Weekly Brief: A Fed review found supervisors knew of SVB's flaws by 2022 but failed to act, as ECB problem loans rose. Australian liquidity improved but stable funding weakened, as Hong Kong planned renminbi tenders and Japan and Malaysia doubled their swap line.

BNY’s Fabian Khoshbakht expects correspondent banking, tokenised deposits, stablecoins and other emerging payment infrastructure to coexist rather than rapidly displace one another. The bigger question ahead of Sibos Miami is whether these increasingly diverse rails can work together to improve how banks and their clients move money and manage liquidity.

China-ASEAN trade and direct investment have surged, but portfolio flows still depend on deeper, more liquid domestic markets.

As sustainability requirements move down supply chains, DBS is helping smaller suppliers define their investment needs and examining how larger corporate buyers may affect access to capital.

The Asian Banker Weekly Brief: The Federal Reserve resumed rate increases and the Bank of Japan tightened further, while authorities confronted AI, data-security and investment-fund risks.

Sustainable Finance Weekly: EU lawmakers back wider CBAM, China and Singapore deepen green finance cooperation, PBOC expands carbon financing and China’s green hydrogen capacity tops 1.4 million tonnes.

Financial Technology Weekly: Sony Bank and Fujitsu apply GenAI to core banking, FIS wins mandates across new US banks, Partior and LSEG develop 24/7 cross-border settlement liquidity.

Key emerging trends from this year's awards show the industry's centre of gravity shifting to the foundations — data, architecture, resilience and rails — that will decide which banks can move fastest.

Alex Bank is expanding beyond higher-margin personal and vehicle lending into transaction banking, small business lending and mortgages, testing whether lower-cost deposits, faster decisioning and partner distribution can turn individual product relationships into a broader and sustainable banking franchise.