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Every year, Vietnam’s capital markets take the next step in their long-term development, growing in size and maturity. And each year, investment bankers fight tooth and nail over the deals that pepper the market: a few chunky IPOs and equity placements here; a couple of government debt sales and syndicated loans there. It all adds up.

Some international lenders don’t quite know what to make of Vietnam. Perhaps the last great, untapped emerging market, it is bursting with potential, but still a work-in-progress. It oozes growth and entrepreneurial spirit, yet the capital markets are young and there are precious few firms of genuine scale.

Digital banking, a slow burn in Vietnam, finally seems to have taken flame. In recent years, domestic banks have been frantically rolling out new online services to demanding customers. Some of these underwhelm, while others, such as privately run VPBank’s digital channel Timo, impress. But none can hold a candle to Citi. The US lender, a growing digital force across Asia, clearly sees Vietnam as a key part of its regional strategy. It uses its local Facebook page (launched four years ago and with 190,000 fans) to target customers and reinforce its brand, then focus on the sale (the digital contribution to Citi’s credit card acquisition rate rose 29% year on year in 2017).

Banking in Cambodia can be tough. It’s a small, developing market and there are a lot of banks; 43 commercial banks are registered with the central bank. And that does not include a longer list of specialized sector-focused banks and microfinanciers.

Banking in Cambodia can be tough. It’s a small, developing market and there are a lot of banks; 43 commercial banks are registered with the central bank. And that does not include a longer list of specialized sector-focused banks and microfinanciers.

Shuzo Shikata’s SBI Royal Securities wins this award for its almost single-handed contribution to the emergence of a Cambodian capital market, notably its fledgling stock market.

This award could be as much a lifetime achievement gong for CIMB Cambodia boss Bun Yin as it is for the Malaysian-owned bank he has run since 2015. Indeed, the mere fact that he is alive to accept it is achievement enough, with this country’s tragic history. Born in 1956, Yin survived the Khmer Rouge genocide as a 19-year-old to become the banker he always wanted to be, and one well respected by competitors, peers and staff alike.

This Kazakh-managed, Canadian-owned Cambodian bank prides itself on its modernity. Its app and online banking functions are regarded by competitors as the industry benchmark in Phnom Penh, and customers seem to agree.

Is there anything MUFG’s dynamic joint venture with Morgan Stanley in Japan doesn’t do? The short answer appears to be not much.

Rakuten Bank is the big Japanese bank you may not have heard of. That may be because Rakuten – Japanese for ‘optimism’ – is better known as an e-commerce play, a 20-year-old site widely regarded as Japan’s equivalent of Amazon. But unlike Rakuten’s Hiroshi Mikitani, Jeff Bezos doesn’t (yet) own a bank.

Arrive in any medium-sized Japanese town during April and there’s every chance you will be able to join a party. That would be MUFG’s ‘Rise up festa’ initiative – a celebration of and for Japan’s small and medium-sized businesses. It is all about unlocking Japanese creative spirit – and monetizing it.

Community and social responsibility as the ideal is understood – and practiced – elsewhere isn’t much of a thing in Japan. More nationalistically inclined Japanese bankers argue that such ideals are inbuilt into normal banking and business practice in the country: helping each other is just what Japanese banks do. But many shrug or draw a blank when asked about it, not entirely sure what it is, explaining that it is something for other countries where wealth is less evenly spread than Japan, where 90% of the people identify as middle class.