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Agricultural Bank of China is playing an increasingly important role in promoting Belt and Road objectives in the United Arab Emirates. China’s third-largest bank opened its second Middle Eastern branch in Dubai in May 2017. The new operation acts as a renminbi clearing centre for the UAE, as well as to offer financial services, including trade finance and syndicated loans, to local companies.

Citi is ideally placed to support Belt and Road trade and initiatives across the region given its presence in 24 countries in the Middle East and Africa and its strong track record in Asia.

No other international bank commits to the Belt and Road Initiative as HSBC does.

China International Capital Corp’s research on the Belt and Road Initiative is comprehensive, rigorous and most importantly, honest.

ICBC became the first Chinese bank to open a subsidiary in Vienna in May this year, to promote cooperation between China and Austria and serving as a gateway to central and eastern Europe (CEE).

With the inauguration last year of Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), Kazakhstan is rapidly emerging as a hub for Belt and Road financing, as well as for transportation. China International Capital Corporation (CICC) has positioned itself at the heart of this initiative and as a key conduit for Chinese investment and financing into Kazakhstan. In 2017, the bank signed a strategic cooperation agreement with AIFC to provide advice on the development of local capital markets and technical support for Astana’s new stock exchange.

Belarus has been an important partner for China in central and eastern Europe for nearly two decades, and the level of cooperation has intensified since the announcement of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013. This in turn has created an increasing need for financial services to support rapidly expanding trade, economic and tourism links between the two countries.

Chances are, when you stumble upon a sizeable China-backed deal to invest in infrastructure in Pakistan, Habib Bank Ltd is involved. The Karachi-based financial institution, Pakistan’s largest lender by assets, wins plaudits and prizes this year, courtesy of a $520 million lignite coal-based power project in Sindh province. The deal was signed in December 2018 and the project will be built by Thar Energy, a consortium run by chief executive Saleemullah Memon, and comprising Hub Power Company, which owns 60% of the plant, local chemicals firm Fauji Fertiliser and China Machinery & Engineering Corporation.

DBS’s importance to the Belt and Road Initiative becomes more apparent every year. Over the last 12 months, the Singapore-based lender provided financial advice and services to five projects backed by mainland corporates in three BRI countries.

This award, while hotly contested, only really had possible one winner. Under its chairman, Gao Ming, Hong Kong-based ICBC (Asia) – which is a subsidiary of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China – has become a regional powerhouse in syndicated lending in a remarkably short space of time.

No one in southeast Asia can hold a candle to Standard Chartered, the only international bank present in all 10 Asean markets, and with a history in the region that stretches back 150 years.