Sriram Muthukrishnan, group head of product management, global transaction services, DBS, explains how digitisation is accelerating the sustainability agenda.

The European banking sector is facing three key challenges: a prolonged period of negative interest rates, the pace and scale of the digital transformation of the sector, and increased competition from established and new entrants.

In an interview, Shi Bo, general manager and CIO (equity) of Southern Asset Management, warns of lower short-term stock market returns ahead, but sees plenty of opportunity for growth in investment advisory.

The CEO of one of the world’s largest banks said recently that institutions “risk losing their licence to operate”, if they fail to make green finance a priority. At a recent annual general meeting of another global bank, there were many questions about sustainability, leaving little time for discussion of more traditional financial matters. Momentum has been building for years, but now sustainable banking is coming of age.

It can be difficult to imagine a world in which real-time payments are the norm for businesses. Yet Jon Levine, co-head of institutional banking at payments bank, Banking Circle, explains why the reality is closer than businesses realise.

Rating agency Moody’s Investors Service recently assigned a B1 credit rating to Jusan Bank, one of Kazakhstan’s leading banks. The award is in recognition of the successful work and strategy of the bank's new management team. In an interview, Aibek Kayip, Jusan’s chairman of the management board, explains what has been achieved by the bank, and highlights some of the new challenges it is facing.

Digital transformation has been a core pillar of Commercial Bank of Qatar’s five-year strategic plan, initiated in 2016. In an interview, Joseph Abraham, group CEO, talks about what evolving into a more digital enterprise means for the bank and its retail and wholesale banking businesses.

Digital transformation is beginning to have a profound impact on the advice, services and products that banks such as Ahli United Bank provide to their corporate banking customers.

After a robust year, China’s securitization market is poised to reach new highs in 2021. Li Zhiming of CICC, the go-to investment bank for securitized products, highlights some opportunities and risks in this fast-growing segment.

There was a dramatic and necessary shift last year by banks to harness digital technology to execute M&A. That shift, as a result of societies in lockdown and travel restricted, has brought clear advantages and efficiencies that will have an impact on the way M&A is executed in years to come.

BNP Paribas’s Instanea instant payments initiation solution is a benchmark for how corporates can benefit from open banking, explains Carlo Bovero, global head of cards and retail payments at BNP Paribas, and Neil Pein, co-global head of Axepta BNP Paribas and head of payments transformation.

Digital transformation is beginning to have a profound impact on the advice, services and products that banks such as Ahli United Bank provide to their retail and private banking customers.

Rapid and widespread digital adoption by banking customers, and accelerated digitalisation across financial services in response to Covid-19, have expanded the opportunity for fraud, and money laundering in particular.

Dr Louise Beaumont works with legislators and regulators to create disruption, with corporates to cope with disruption, and with start-ups to exploit disruption – with open and accessible data as the guiding principle. She is an expert in innovations in Open Banking, Open Finance, Lending and Payments.

In the course of a difficult year, China Merchants Bank’s private banking business has gone from strength to strength, extending its lead over domestic rivals and solidifying its position among the international top tier.

Sustainable finance is no longer just a virtue-signalling additional option to have in the corporate toolbox. It is a core part of a broader purpose, says Societe Generale’s Alexandre Maymat, head of global transaction and payment services.

Standard Chartered’s refreshed strategy in Ghana is proving a success story.

BBVA is an organization with a transformational purpose: to create a positive impact on the lives of people, companies and society as a whole and “to bring the age of opportunity to everyone.”