DBS retains the award for Asia’s best bank for its outstanding response to the Covid-19 crisis.

The region's best banks, country by country

The region's best banks, country by country

Corporate responsibility is at the heart of what National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) does. It is hard to find worthy projects, causes and charities that the Manama-based lender is not involved in funding and furthering.

Business diversification has proved to be a crucial asset for BNP Paribas over the past year. Relatively intact operations such as fixed income trading have provided vital props to its financial performance compared with local rivals that had made deeper cuts to those businesses pre-Covid. Post-pandemic the bank has become even more important as a financier to its western European clients. It has also moved earlier than other top-tier global banks to burnish its sustainability credentials.

Many are still a long way from understanding the risk climate change poses to their businesses.

China’s lenders are keen to go green, as Ping An Bank chairman Xie Yonglin tells Euromoney. Regulators want that, too – but embracing ESG in a country still in thrall to dirty industry is easier said than done.

Private equity has been slow to join the ESG revolution. More firms are waking up to the opportunities on offer as well as the downside risks.

Since Jes Staley took charge of Barclays at the end of 2015, he has faced constant questions over his ability to reposition the firm as a credible force in investment banking. Sticking to his guns in the face of activist shareholder pressure, he now looks vindicated, but growing from here presents a new challenge.

The two banks plus Singapore’s stock exchange and sovereign wealth vehicle believe they have the collective strength and skills to build Climate Impact X, based initially on southeast Asian forestry and mangrove projects.

Biodiversity loss now competes with climate change as the principal challenge for sustainable finance. What does it actually mean for banks and asset managers and what can the private sector do to restore the balance of nature?

The former head of Credit Suisse has a network of wealthy investors to provide patient capital to a target and a vision for growth from his time at Prudential.

After a lifetime in Vienna, Peter Bosek has moved 1,600 kilometres north to head up Blackstone’s banking operation in the Baltics. He talks to Euromoney about life in Tallinn, how to take advantage of millennials’ new-found enthusiasm for investment and what banks can learn from Netflix.

It has the backing of Prince Charles, as well as several big names in banking – but will the Financial Services Taskforce contribute anything new to the fight against climate change?

The Spanish group’s rise to private banking prominence didn’t happen overnight. An internal merger helped, as did work integrating Europe and Latin America. The next step will be the biggest of all, as it begins a concerted push into the US.

UBS still cream of the crop as JPMorgan, Santander stand tall

Brazil should be well placed to benefit from renewed interest in forestry projects, but the country’s restrictive land laws could lead foreign investment to flow elsewhere.

Fears over greenwashing claims have often dissuaded issuers from the Middle East from entering the sustainable bond markets. That could be set to change.

If the market for sustainable finance is ever to achieve true scale, it needs to crack the tough nut of sustainable trade finance solutions.

Previously known as reverse factoring, sustainable supply-chain finance is one of the products currently generating the most interest among both banks and their corporate clients.

The US president’s prompt action in rejoining the Paris Agreement has given encouragement to environmentalists at home and abroad. What should be next on his green hit list?

European bank shares have rallied even though the pain of loan losses still lies ahead. It is also not clear how they will repay emergency ECB funding

Russia’s big state bank wants to be the leading player in the country’s fast-growing e-commerce sector. It could succeed.

From Covid relief funds to the COP26 climate summit, sustainability is expected to dominate the global agenda this year as never before.

Every bank wants to rebrand as a tech player, but few are aiming as high as Sberbank.

Euromoney’s futurologist Mystic Maca gets on a Zoom call with next year, when markets return to a version of normality.

A global green recovery is still a distant ambition, but leadership across sectors is slowly coming together.

The sheer weight of investor demand for sovereign issuance means that the UK government could be warming up to the idea of a green gilt.

A specialist calculation agent reckons now is an ideal time to break into a busy region for equity-linked deals.

In 1994, Aditya Puri left Citibank to launch a new institution in a rapidly changing India. As he prepares to retire after 26 years, HDFC Bank stands apart as the strongest and most successful private-sector bank in the country.