We might just have reached the tipping point where regional banks have become the most important players on their continents.

Bankers pitching for Euromoney awards just can’t help themselves – year after year, the jargon gets more impenetrable, the league tables more inventive and the logistics more unreliable. Here’s a selection of the best, or worst, bits from 2019.

View the winners here.

Almost 10 years into his role as chief executive of Singapore-based DBS, Piyush Gupta has spent the last six of them on a mission to make an institution that looks more like a tech company than a bank. His message and methods are working, as digital disruption shreds costs and creates new revenue streams. Has DBS created the template for how successful banks will need to look in the future?

JPMorgan today dominates the global corporate and investment banking landscape. The key to success? A long-term strategy led by group co-president and CIB chief Daniel Pinto, and a management team that keeps the business in a constant state of reinvention.

The Bank of England and Federal Reserve begin to build the bulwarks against Facebook's cryptocurrency Libra.

The field of contenders in the race to succeed Mark Carney as governor of the BoE is widening to include some unlikely names.

Don’t believe the doubters – the transition from fossil fuel to clean energy can be made, and made swiftly and profitably.

Should an institution with all that scale and ability be delivering more than this? The problem with long-term numbers is they still reflect issues from 20 years ago.

Cash borrowers want forward-looking reference rates to transition to after Libor and the market is struggling to come up with them.

US-dominated investors make it harder for good banks to shine through.

Argentina’s politicians have played their cards for the coming presidential election – Cristina Kirchner surprised everyone by lining up behind Alberto Fernandez.

The central bank’s new ideas for how to modernize Britain’s financial system could eat into banks’ revenues, while helping them cut costs. For the wider economy, Brexit will still smother the intended fillip to small-business exporters.

A lack of underwriting or stabilization certainly makes Slack’s route to market different to the norm, but don’t be fooled into thinking there’s no old-fashioned art behind it.

Will a good Shanghai tech board be bad for Hong Kong?

Some big names are lining up to back Zuckerberg’s new cryptocoin, but why? Potential investors should be wary.