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Results index It is time to acknowledge a home-grown banking champion that, while still lacking the pan-Asian scope of some international rivals, has demonstrated consistent excellence and a commitment to innovation. At a time when many western banks are in retreat from Asia, it is right to applaud one that is increasing market penetration almost everywhere it attempts to do business.

Results index If you register a new business in Singapore – and there is truly nowhere easier to do so – then within a matter of weeks you will get a call from OCBC offering to help. Every single person who files with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority is contacted, and it is commonplace for businesses to get access to funding within six months of signing the incorporation forms. Approvals take just a day, services are simple and targeted, and as a result OCBC supports one in two start-ups in the city state.

Results index Piyush Gupta, the CEO of DBS, is a great believer in the threat to banking from platforms like Ant Financial, and in the opportunity available for those who get ahead of the game. Gupta has invested S$4.6 billion in digital strategies in the last five years. He has also insisted that everyone in his team buy in to the vision, arguing that it is much easier to effect change if 22,000 staff believe in it than to try to drive it from the top down.

Results index Five years ago, Citi’s global transaction services business launched an innovation lab in Singapore, in a business park out by Changi Airport. At first it felt like a gimmick, but has considered hundreds of ideas since and put 80 to prototype.

Asian banks are increasingly proving themselves to be much more than just volume-hungry lenders.

A list of winners of Euromoney’s Asia Awards for Excellence 2016, as well as detailed citations for all of the winners, is available here

Results index Swiss bank UBS continues to be the biggest and strongest name in the wealth-management industry, but it scoops the Asia award not just for scale but for its demonstrable resilience and a model tuned to Asian entrepreneurial needs. Asia-Pacific wealth management head Edmund Koh likes to compare UBS to stainless steel: long-lasting, resilient, and nothing really marks it. The last bit hasn’t always been true at a group level, but in private wealth you can see his point: it has remained one of the businesses clients are not only loyal to but tend to gravitate towards when times are tough.

Results index If you wanted to identify the moment HSBC became an unarguable candidate for the best investment bank in Asia award, it was when the bank was mandated on the devilishly sensitive reorganization of Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa. In years past, the advisory mandate would have gone elsewhere, probably straight to Goldman Sachs; HSBC would have been called in at the last minute for its balance sheet and perhaps a bond takeout. This time, HSBC led the deal the whole way through and won widespread acclaim for it, including from its peers.

Results index HSBC’s power in debt financing, allied with the strength of its balance sheet, is well known, but Stephen Williams’ capital financing team was no one-trick pony during our review period. It handled equity or equity-linked deals in Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and India as well as many of the deals that mattered most in Greater China. Among them were the $2.115 billion IPO of China Reinsurance and $2.54 billion IPO of China Huarong Asset Management which collectively re-opened regional equity fundraising markets in October. VRL Logistics in India was one of the most successful IPOs from the country for years.

These are miserable times in Australian banking, which is suffering issues ranging from banking culture to credit quality as the commodity cycle ends. Commonwealth Bank has reputational issues around its CommInsure unit, while both ANZ and Westpac are under investigation for rate manipulation.

DBS wins region’s best bank award and is named best digital bank in Asia; HSBC wins the regional investment bank award for the first time; Morgan Stanley triumphs in advisory and Citi wins markets and transaction services.

Results index The best bank for markets category is a natural battleground for HSBC and Citi in Asia, and both had plenty to recommend them: HSBC’s China dominance, and Citi’s pan-regional excellence. Either would have been worthy winners, but Citi impressed with a business of increasing efficiency, profitability and direction.