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As the go-to house for capital markets and transaction banking in central and eastern Europe, and a market leader in Asia, Citi is ideally placed to serve companies investing along the New Silk Road. The US bank – which boasts an on-the-ground presence in the majority of the Belt and Road countries – is gearing up to take full advantage of its unique position.

In Kazakhstan, one of the key Belt and Road countries, Tsesnabank is already emerging as a leading partner for foreign and domestic companies engaged in cross-border business with China.

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.

Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) consistently puts itself in a strong position to serve both Chinese companies expanding into Thailand and local firms making the return journey.

HSBC’s history in China and southeast Asia stretches back to the latter part of the 19th Century. And while experience doesn’t count for everything, it counts for quite a bit in this case. No lender has surely been more effective at finding, funding and facilitating belt-and-road deals in southeast Asia.

Being present at the creation of the Belt and Road Initiative must be like life at the start of the internet. Everyone knew it would be huge – but it wasn’t clear at first what that really meant.

When Cosco Shipping International (Singapore) announced its intention to buy Cogent Holdings, the deal made not only great practical sense, but also served to underline the speed with which the Belt and Road Initiative has become an integral part of the financial and commercial world.

Through the internationalization of the renminbi, capital markets activity, mergers and acquisitions and the funding of some remarkable projects, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has taken root in financial markets. These are the banks leading the way

No lender in south Asia can compete with Standard Chartered’s scale, strength, pocketbook and willingness to go the extra yard for its clients. Over the last year, it has done more complex regional deals that use Chinese money, involve mainland corporates and enhance and expand the New Silk Road project than any of its peers.

HBL is the standout winner of this award, for four connected reasons. First, because HBL is the biggest bank in Pakistan. Second, it’s the biggest provider of infrastructure financing in Pakistan. Third, it is clearly China’s most-trusted local commercial banking partner in south Asia – see our award for best regional bank of the year for BRI. And fourth, because Pakistan is the beating heart of China’s Belt and Road Initiative – no country has benefited more, or bought in so deeply, to president Xi Jinping’s vision of a new geopolitical trade map that starts in China, but ends up pretty much anywhere in Africa, Europe or Asia.

This award was keenly contested. Standard Chartered deserves credit for being appointed escrow agent on the construction of the new Nepal International Airport, funded by a $216 million loan from Export-Import Bank of China. And Credit Suisse stands out for its $65.1 million term loan to Housing Development Corporation, a state-owned Maldivian firm, which will finance the construction of 7,000 social housing units on the sprawling island chain that sits at the heart of the Maritime Silk Road.

United Overseas Bank’s regional ambitions were underlined in April when the Singapore lender priced a three-year, renminbi-denominated bond, raising S$208.6 million ($150 million). The bond issue, which was oversubscribed 2.86 times, was the first financial bond printed in China by a southeast Asian institution using Beijing’s Bond Connect scheme, which gives foreign investors access to the mainland’s debt markets.