Asiamoney New Silk Road Finance Awards

HSBC Global Research has more than 350 analysts around the world, focusing on global emerging markets and Asia, and in recent years examining key BRI investment themes along the Silk Road.

Standard Chartered Bank’s deep roots in Asia, and its presence in the majority of the BRI markets make it a natural winner of the award for Best Overall International Bank for BRI. It has been working with both its Chinese and global corporate clients, as well as its Chinese banking partners (among them the big four) and the policy banks, in funding many of the projects along the old Silk Road.

For years, China had ambitions to develop the marshy swamps facing Georgia’s Black Sea coast, and under former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, plans were drawn up to turn a large patch of marshland along the coast into a Chinese-designed metropolis with towering glass buildings.

China International Capital Corp is the strongest Chinese investment mergers and acquisition adviser for Chinese state-owned companies, according to research firm Dealogic. In the 12 months between June 2017 and May 2018, the Beijing-based investment bank advised on 58 deals with a total value of $80.6 billion, the highest number of deals and the largest deal value among Chinese investment banks.

There is no question that Bank of China International deserves to be named best Chinese Bank for the Belt and Road Initiative. BOC's parent, Bank of China, was the first bank to issue BRI bonds, back in 2015, which it uses to help finance infrastructure projects along the old Silk Road.

When president Vladimir Putin launched Russia’s ‘pivot to the east’ after the Ukraine crisis in 2014, it was met with scepticism by many in the west.

In 2005, nine Shanghai-based state-owned enterprises set up a project company to develop a large-scale residential and commercial complex in St Petersburg. Since then, Shanghai Overseas United Investment Holdings (SOUI) has invested more than $1.3 billion in the Baltic Pearl development, making it the largest non-energy investment by Chinese companies in Russia.

The internationalization of the renminbi is a key component of China’s drive to enhance trade connections across the Belt and Road countries. Among international banks, HSBC has positioned itself as the market leader in this field, offering unrivalled renminbi settlement capabilities and trading.