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There is an important changing of the guard for the best bank for markets award, reflecting a rapid and big improvement. In previous years, Bank of America Merrill Lynch would have been at the periphery of a conversation on Asia-Pacific markets. Now it is front and centre. The most obvious thing BAML has going for it is diversity. Whereas the usual contenders in this category, Citi and HSBC, are heavy on forex and rates but are trying to bolster equities from a relatively low base (Morgan Stanley is the reverse), BAML is already diversified, with equities businesses accounting for 40% of global markets revenues in 2016 and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) 60%. That FICC figure is roughly equally split between emerging and developed markets. Global rates, credit and foreign exchange are all well represented.

Morgan Stanley dominated M&A league tables during our review period, but winning the best bank for advisory award is about more than scale. What is more impressive is the way Morgan Stanley has put itself at the heart of the central trends of Asia-Pacific M&A, usually getting itself on to the lucrative sell side along the way.

The best bank for financing award will surprise those who set great store in league tables – but maybe they have been looking at the wrong league tables. While Credit Suisse is not a leader in volume terms, and in some areas is far from it, Dealogic data show that it is one of the most profitable houses across investment banking. In fact during the awards period, if Australia is added to ex-Japan Asia, no house made more from public deals in the region.

Citi continues to fire on all cylinders across cash management, trade finance and securities services. It combines scale and market penetration with innovation, and the sense of drive among senior staff in the region is palpable – making it our best bank for transaction services in Asia.

At Credit Suisse, the Asia-Pacific wealth management business is tasked with little short of saving the whole bank worldwide. While the bank struggles globally, it has at least had the common sense to deploy capital in the places it is good at, specifically serving Asia-Pacific entrepreneurs. That makes the bank our winner for Asian wealth management.

Euromoney has never before given an award in Afghanistan, but the story of Azizi Bank is compelling. Formed by an ethnic business group in 2006 and owned by Dubai’s Azizi Group, it took over the Development Bank of Afghanistan from the central bank in 2009, then India’s Punjab National Bank in 2014. It is Afghanistan’s largest commercial bank, with more than 140 branches and a million customers, and employs 2,300 people, 17% of them women, which does not sound a lot but matters in Afghanistan.

For almost 50 years, Euromoney has been the leading publication for covering the growth of international finance. Over the past 12 months its coverage has included interviews with close to 100 bank CEOs, ministers of finance and central bank governors around the world.

It is genuinely impossible to have a conversation with anyone at DBS without it turning swiftly to digital initiatives. Whether it is a transaction services or an SME banker across the table, capital markets or even CSR, and most certainly if it is CEO Piyush Gupta, it is clear that the digital agenda pervades everything DBS does, which makes it a worthy winner of this year’s best digital bank. DBS is not alone in this, but it is the one bank that convinces you that its use of technology is not just about marketing and simplification, but is translating into profits and new business.

Vantiv's deal to buy Worldpay may be only the first of a number of high-profile takeovers in the payments industry as a fragmented market looks for global answers.

The best investment bank in Asia awards was one of the easier ones to decide upon. Morgan Stanley had an outstanding year in advisory and equity capital markets, and held its own in debt.

No matter where head office is based, Euromoney’s best regional bank, HSBC, is fundamentally about Asia. In 2016, the region contributed $10.6 billion out of global profit before tax of $17.3 billion – two thirds of the pie.