Bank of China (Hong Kong) has demonstrated a strong focus on advancing cross-border financial innovation in the Greater Bay Area.

The team at Mirae Asset Securities has long been a forward thinker. That skill came in particularly handy during the past year, when a high interest rate environment and global geopolitical uncertainties proved disruptive.

Huatai International takes the Euromoney award for best securities house in Hong Kong for 2024, thanks not just to its prowess across asset classes but also its ability to seamlessly collaborate with its onshore Chinese parent, Huatai United Securities, to execute deals and gain clients.

Huatai International’s equities business held its own in the past year, despite the Hong Kong market being in the doldrums and seeing a sharp fall in deal activity. Huatai managed to bag the fourth place among Chinese securities houses on the Hong Kong ECM bookrunning league table during Euromoney’s awards period, Dealogic data shows.

In the past year, OCBC Securities has made big headways on leveraging technology and digitalization to transform clients’ financial experience, becoming the natural choice for this Euromoney award.

OCBC Securities, led by managing director Wilson He, is Singapore’s best securities house for 2024, gaining plaudits for evolving with the times, staying on top of client needs, thinking out of the box and – importantly – finding its niche and dominating that.

With a roughly 9% DCM bookrunning market share during Euromoney’s awards period, AmInvestment Bank has a strong footing in Malaysia’s fixed income market and tight relationships with the largest corporates and government-backed entities.

Brazilian investment bank BR Partners has made big strides when it comes to embedding ESG principles into its core operations, particularly in risk management, making it Euromoney’s best securities house for ESG in Brazil this year.

Corporate treasurers face a range of challenges in producing accurate liquidity forecasts. Not all of them can be addressed by technology alone.

Digital banks often struggle with soaring customer acquisition costs in saturated markets. Hong Kong’s ZA Bank, which announced its first monthly profit last week, can offer valuable lessons for firms navigating similar challenges.

Not long ago, Miami was known as a place middle-class Americans went to retire. Today, it is a burgeoning financial hub full of high net-worth families, private equity firms and hedge funds – and it is busy pulling in capital and private wealth at a record rate.

Former credit trader Shikha Gupta discovers that a verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it is written on.

Its acquisition of the Belgian private bank and asset manager offers Indosuez a chance to bulk up fast in key European markets. Its chief executive Jacques Prost sits down… erm, stands up with Euromoney to discuss the firm’s future.

It is turning out to be an equities year for the big investment banks, as fixed income revenues fall or stall and fees from dealmaking recover slowly.

Direct lending may have benefitted from the resurgence in US private equity buy outs in the first half of the year, but there may still be a return to syndicated markets.

Bullish US companies are looking beyond historically high interest rates and tight lending standards when it comes to commercial lending.

While incumbent Italian banks have seen profits surge thanks to higher rates, the shrinking size and profitability of the non-performing loan market has hit illimity hard. Unperturbed, founder and chief executive Corrado Passera believes the original premise for an SME-focused neobank is more valid than ever.

Nearshoring has become a topic that is discussed so often – and applied to so many issues – that it seems to be everywhere, and nowhere at once. Euromoney talks to banks operating in the Mexican market to find specific examples of new business being generated by nearshoring.

A small three-month deal from one of the bond market’s most frequent issuers shows the potential for on-chain delivery versus payment in central bank money. But the obstacles to widespread use of blockchains remain.

Having taken a hammering following Mexico’s election results and the Brazilian president's comments on fiscal consolidation, the prospects for the key Latin American currencies over the remainder of 2024 are unclear.

Proponents of banking-as-a-service will be hoping that UniCredit’s decision to acquire Aion Bank and Vodeno marks a turning point in a sector that has experienced considerable volatility.

Investing in Latin America’s payment fintechs is having a moment – but will the region’s central banks kill off their revenue model by adopting their own version of Brazil’s PIX?

New institutional investors are providing liquidity to longstanding Revolut employees and giving a valuation proof point to its stunning revenue and profit growth.

Its acquisition of Citi’s retail banking business in the Philippines has proven to be a challenge. It has put pressure on the bank’s capital buffers, while Citi’s high-end customers have shown a preference for international players.

Transaction banks in Asia will have to up their game to satisfy corporates who now view a strong digital offering as a prerequisite to maintaining relationships.

National champion banks should worry that the latest surveys commissioned by the Competition and Markets Authority might prompt loss of more primary accounts.

Falling inflation has sparked an early surge in credit demand, which offers the prospect of banking normalization – a potential boon given the negative real interest rates banks are earning on their government securities portfolios.

Corporates, asset managers and hedge funds appear to be willing to work with FX service providers to improve the latter’s offerings despite concerns over core services.

Guidelines published by China’s cabinet pledged to boost the quality of its capital markets. But they neither understand nor trust the vibrant-yet-turbulent nature of that financial system.

BDO Unibank has worked on sustainable finance in the Philippines since 2010.