East Asia

No foreign bank comes close to competing with Citi for this award. The US lender comes top regularly on every conceivable metric.

Yuanta Securities, under CEO Arthur Chen, has been a leader in this field for years. In its worst years, it remains competitive; in its best years, it out-guns the rest of the field.

CTBC Bank is a worthy winner of this award. The Taipei-based lender is still finding its feet in the region through its subsidiaries in Indonesia, Vietnam and Japan and a growing network of branches spanning 10 Asian cities. In March, its parent, CTBC Financial Holding, bought a 35.6% stake in Bangkok-based LH Financial Group, paying Bt16.6 billion ($480 million) and marking the first big investment in Thailand by a Taiwan lender.

HSBC lifers like to argue that the ethos of corporate and social responsibility is part of their DNA in Hong Kong. That’s not necessarily because they are caring and sharing souls by nature, though they doubtless are. But it’s more because for decades, being ‘The bank’ in Hong Kong, the primary issuer of banknotes and the territory’s most important commercial institution, came with similar responsibilities of being de facto government.

Starting in the 1930s, Hang Seng built its franchise banking the small Hong Kong traders and hawkers that other banks wouldn’t touch. The more things change, the more they get bigger.

At first glance, the connection between an Indonesian tax amnesty and Singapore bank DBS’s recent push into Asian private banking isn’t apparent. But think again. Singaporean banks have seen billions of dollars leave their care since Jakarta gave Indonesians an amnesty to get their finances in order. Indonesian officials have said 57% of funds repatriated home came from Singapore.

In Hong Kong banking, ‘international’ pretty much means China. And ‘Chinese bank’ pretty much means Beijing’s note-issuing giant Bank of China. And with Beijing’s $1 trillion One Belt, One Road initiative in the pipeline, clients know that they are buying BOCI’s extensive connections in China. That was seen in 2016 when BOCI brought Bank of Tianjin to the Hong Kong market.

Hong Kong is one of the world’s most wired markets; its internet users are more demanding than most. So Citi starts its digital offering from a good, if obvious, place. It wants its digital customer experience to be: ‘simple, intuitive, and seamless from beginning to end.’

HSBC likes to say it provides unparalleled one-stop services for its corporate clients, from deal origination and execution, through lending and syndication to sales and even research coverage. And it will do the entire train of transaction green, if you like.