For many private banks that set up in Asia in the last decade, the cost of doing business kept them locked out of the vast expansion of wealth in the region; those that didn’t leave are settling into a more mature industry, but they are a long way from being able to relax.

The pieces are starting to shift on the board of Chinese investment banking. There have been signs of progress, frustration and new strategy since last April’s announcement that foreigners would be allowed to take majority stakes in securities joint ventures on the mainland.

Volatility in China and increased onshore access means a greater need for hedging; Singapore also building offshore rupee traction.

New numbers suggest there could be trouble ahead for Asian high-yield issuers.

New penalties from China’s bank regulator suggest a firmer stance on trying to bury bad debts, but it’s not just a bludgeoning.

Numbers are solid and money is flowing into the system, but ICBC must avoid the temptation to drift from its conservative approach to risk.

Every reported number in 2018 from CCB was impressive. But maintaining this momentum in the year ahead will require exceptional management.

When Sri Lanka, a key link in the Belt and Road Initiative, sold China a deep-water port in exchange for debt alleviation, it raised eyebrows around the world – yet Colombo continues to borrow from Beijing even as its fiscal situation worsens.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative is trumpeted as a ‘win-win’ for all, but is it everything it’s cracked up to be? Or are countries on its route, wary of Beijing’s motives and fearful of being trapped by debt to China’s big development banks, losing faith in the plan?

Warning sirens are sounding about the level of debt Djibouti owes to China for Belt and Road projects. The local view is that they need the money and China is the country that is offering it. But the fate of the Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway represents the financial challenges of BRI in a 756-kilometre microcosm.

Euromoney's feature on Hillhouse Capital lifts the lid on a style of investment that we all need to understand more clearly.

It is worth over $50 billion and its deals are among the most important and influential in Asia, it is at the vanguard of Chinese private equity and yet it talks to nobody, but market participants in Asia and beyond need to understand it. What goes on inside Hillhouse?

The fund is deploying $1 billion of the Chinese group’s money into digital medicine and fintech around the world, but profit is not its main ambition.

Why is nobody in Asia worrying about trade wars and rate hikes?

UBS’s path to China JV control raises questions for others.

The prospectus for the forthcoming Hong Kong IPO of Bitmain, which dominates the market for cryptocurrency mining hardware, unveils the highs and lows of businesses linked to bitcoin. It will cause crypto ideals to collide with institutional expectations about business transparency.

Following in the footsteps of Egypt and South Africa, Nigeria has signed up for a currency swap deal with China, but are swaps all they are cracked up to be?

As Chinese bond markets are set to be included in indices for the first time, a big change is coming to the global financial system. Chinese government bonds could become the new Bunds in portfolios, but Xi Jinping might have bigger targets in his sights.

Any slowdown in the economy of the country that consumes so much local output will bring short-term pain and should be a long-term warning.

A new rule change will require Chinese banks to recognize more loans as impaired, but while big lenders will sail through, there’s trouble at the smaller end of town.

A listing of a state-owned infrastructure asset owner in Hong Kong sounds old school, but its key investors tell another story.

The only assets CFIUS will allow the Chinese to buy are the ones China doesn’t want and won’t allow. What next?

Khorgos, a new state-of-the-art port in the middle of the Kazakh desert, sums up the grand ambitions of the Belt and Road Initiative. But it is as much driven and funded by Kazakhstan as it is by China. Rather than being a white elephant, it has real implications for trade.

Soviet military bunkers in Kazakhstan and portable houses in Siberia linked up to the plumbing: Bitcoin mining is moving in some interesting directions that will become even more diverse as China cracks down on its domestic industry.

Why aren’t firms putting their money where Xi Jinping’s mouth is?

Professor Niall Ferguson visited São Paulo in April to address Itaú’s annual MacroVision conference, and found time to sit down with Euromoney to talk fintech, social media and trade. In particular he focused on China and how it will impact Latin America’s future.

China appears to be opening up to the idea of a wider range of payments options. Before overseas companies look to dive in, they need to make sure they are keeping on the right side of the regulator.

Singapore bank links with Chinese big data specialist; More digital innovation to follow in Asia.

Countries are queueing to accept Chinese lending for Belt and Road infrastructure projects. But could that borrowing come back to bite them – and China?

Asia has so much to build and yet it doesn’t seem to be involved.