Asia Pacific

The firm has joined Barclays and Jefferies, as well as start-ups Jarden Australia and Barrenjoey, in bolstering its presence in Australia. What’s the appeal of this heavily banked market?

What does the future hold for Hong Kong, and by default for its overseers in Beijing? Euromoney’s China editor, stuck in lockdown in a Hong Kong hotel, considers the options.

In the face of fierce regulatory pressure in Washington and Beijing, it is hard to see many, or any, Chinese firms going public in New York next year.

China Construction Bank enjoyed a strong year, benefiting from sharply higher trading income and better asset quality.

MUFG reaps benefits from releases and Morgan Stanley but needs do the same from its core businesses.

Piyush Gupta thinks the worst is behind us and now is the time for the bank to start looking at China.

It is more important than ever that banks get China right. Senior executives from the Euromoney 25 discuss what to expect in 2022 as the world’s second-largest economy enters a period of more stable growth.

Macquarie has emerged from the pandemic cashed-up and ready to spend.

The bank had a good year, keeping profits high and bad loans low. But the big challenges of the 2020s start now.

A longstanding pioneer in illiquid and private assets, Australia’s Future Fund has found itself well placed for an uncertain and yieldless world. It got here by being able to adapt to changing conditions and CIO Sue Brake knows there is plenty more of that to come.

At the end of each year, Euromoney takes a close look at the performance of 25 key institutions that we cover. Speaking to senior executives at these firms, we assess what went right and what didn’t, together with what might lie ahead. This year, we have also examined the views of those at the top on two important factors for 2022: their own and others’ asset quality, and the disruptive threat of China. Their observations are discussed in the two features below, followed by our reports for 2021 on the Euromoney 25.

The whole world must deal with Libor transition, but the situation is especially complex in Asia. Each jurisdiction has a different approach to benchmarks, and several countries are going to end up with multiple rates. On top of that there are big questions about liquidity. So, is Asia ready?

The smallest countries are among the quickest to reposition themselves amid the great digital disruption.

The digital pioneer’s consumer website and mobile app have been hit by a series of problems.

The Japanese currency continues to slide as traders anticipate interest-rate movement in the US, but even the Fed's hawkish tilt does not guarantee that this direction of travel will be sustained.

Bank of America’s global and Asia-Pacific heads of receivables tell Euromoney how their artificial intelligence-powered intelligent receivables service has slashed client-matching error rates.

There was a time when Paytm was the epitome of rising digital Asia, but the dismal opening of its IPO suggests it and its peers are no longer market darlings in the eyes of investors.

Earlier this year HSBC chief executive Noel Quinn pledged $6 billion of investment in Asia – half of it outside Greater China. Having recognized he can do so much more in southeast Asia and India, how will he achieve this?

A new report by Campden Wealth and Raffles Family Office finds that family offices based in Asia are richer, more ambitious and more positive about the future than those anywhere else. That seems unlikely to change any time soon.

Covid left Asia’s big markets closed to business travel, yet M&A is surging, with Australia and southeast Asia at the forefront of activity. China, where the focus is on local investments, is, however, bucking the trend.

China’s president is a modern-day emperor who rules with an iron fist. His ‘common prosperity’ push promises better jobs and more equality, but it’s causing analysts to ask if the market is no longer investible and investors to fret and pull back – at a time when the country needs foreign capital more than ever.

Nazir Razak, who built CIMB from an obscure Malaysian merchant bank to a pan-regional universal player, is the youngest of five brothers. The eldest, Najib, was the prime minister who was convicted for his role in the 1MDB scandal. That pitted the two against one another. In the background of the brothers’ opposition was the legacy of their father.

A new programme announced at COP26 plans to speed up progress away from coal-fired power in Indonesia and the Philippines by buying out plants, shutting them down, and helping to provide a cleaner alternative.

Hong Kong’s harsh quarantine rules could stay for another year – and possibly longer. So could China’s. Bankers aren’t happy, but they’ve learned to adapt.

The Thai bank takes a step forward in its strategy to upgrade to a financial technology group.

A lawyer with a specialism in helping Chinese companies to float in the US is among the cast of characters working on Donald Trump’s Spac.

The dining privileges at Bloomberg's New Economy Forum divide an irritated nation

A new study shows a high level of restlessness among high net-worth clients: they are tired of being immobile and are considering moving their families

A new blockchain-based payments platform is backed by JPMorgan, DBS and Temasek. It is the source of some pride to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, as the new business is the result of a long-term financial experiment.

The president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank tells Euromoney the multilateral is intent on being ESG friendly, and crowding more private-sector capital into infrastructure projects.