Drive, reach and contacts separate the winners from the rest of the pack.

Singapore has become a hothouse for the fintech and banking debate, but can its banks meet the challenge?

P2P lender Modalku is set on building a business based on financial inclusion – one that benefits not just its customers, but the country’s traditional banks as well.

One thousand pages tell us plenty about bank misconduct – but nothing new, and it’s all in the price.

Since May, when the country had its 'Berlin Wall moment' – putting an end to its virtual one-party state – economic and political signs have been positive… but inevitably there are looming flashpoints.

After falling in love with Vietnam during a holiday in 1994, Markus Winkler made it his life’s work to get its capital markets up and running.

Thailand’s generals are pushing a 20-year infrastructure plan that aims to transform the country into a high value economy and logistics hub for Asean.

It should be a sure winner, with a large international presence, a strong domestic franchise and customer loyalty second to none, so why has Bangkok Bank lost out to its nimble local and foreign competitors, and what can CEO Chartsiri Sophonpanich do to put it right?

Domenic Fuda, the chief executive of Hong Leong Bank, has a plan to turn the conservative lender into a fintech hothouse – his digital revolution is already paying off.

Malaysia’s new finance minister thinks the country’s recent elections were a Berlin Wall-style moment for the country.

The country is famously extending its reach across the Eurasian continent, building infrastructure and more for the benefit of itself and the countries the Silk Road passes through.

Asian companies are facing a difficult balancing act between pursuing growth and doing good – those that get it right will please analysts and investors.

This southeast Asian economy is growing, but its capital markets are not.

For decades, Union Bank of the Philippines has been a worthy medium-sized lender, but little more.

The insurance firm has armed itself to the teeth with fintech, but can it really take on internet champions such as Alibaba and Tencent?

The southeast Asian country was brought to its knees 20 years ago because of the failure of its biggest banks.

With its strong growth and rising levels of income and urbanization, the country is attracting plenty of PE.

Both Japan and China are competing for the right to finance and build new infrastructure worth trillions of dollars in the Philippines and other parts of southeast Asia.

Finally, some progress in Indonesian infrastructure – but familiar battles remain.

Sovereign funds and Japanese banks fared differently in their financial crisis deals.

Euromoney’s survey of risk experts shows the sovereign borrower on an improving score trend, which is already warranting a BB credit rating.

As Chinese bond markets are set to be included in indices for the first time, a big change is coming to the global financial system.

Neal Cross brought a range of unusual experiences to his job as chief innovation officer at DBS, one of the world’s most impressive banks for digital ideas.

Islamic finance has become too focused on getting arcane structures to be technically Shariah compliant, but a new initiative in Malaysia attempts to make Islamic finance socially positive once more – and to measure its success.

Over 20 years after microfinance first arrived in Kyrgyzstan, the largest players are transforming into banks to lower funding costs and increase financial inclusion.

Agricultural Bank of China

ICBC

Mandiri Sekuritas

Standard Chartered

Bualuang Securities

HBL

Emerging markets have experienced bouts of extreme volatility this year, prompted as much by rising rates in the US as by any domestic problems.

China Merchants Banks

These companies received the highest number of votes for their sector.

China Development Bank

These companies have been deemed as being most outstanding by having received the highest number of votes in their country/territory.

Overlooked during the early years of the Belt and Road Initiative, the region is now central to the entire project.

Siam Commercial Bank

Standard Chartered

Haitong International Securities

China CITIC Bank

Which banks in each country have excelled across a range of core banking activities over the past 12 months?

HSBC

UOB

First Abu Dhabi Bank

View the results of the 2018 Asiamoney China corporate and investment banking awards here.

DBS Vickers

The Asia's Outstanding Companies Poll is designed to acknowledge the listed companies that have excelled in areas such as financial performance, management team excellence, IR activities and CSR initiatives.

NH Investment and Securities

Five years after China launched its Belt and Road Initiative, its ambitions in the Middle East and Africa are beginning to go beyond infrastructure and oil.

Pakistan has long been as enamoured of the BRI as India is suspicious.

ICBC

Green Delta Capital Limited

CICC

HSBC

Saigon Securities

BOC International

Addis-Djibouti Electric Railway Line (Export-Import Bank of China)

Deutsche Bank

Standard Chartered

SBI Royal Securities

HSBC

Sberbank

Yuanta Securities

ICBC (Asia)

Sale of Cogent Holdings to COSCO Shipping (Credit Suisse)

Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (Credit Suisse)

Affin Hwang

Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered

CICC

HBL

This summer Asiamoney took on the difficult task of finding the outstanding company in each country in the region.

Anaklia Deep Sea Port and Special Economic Zone (Anaklia SEZ)

Bank Misr

Anaklia Deep Sea Port and Special Economic Zone (Anaklia SEZ)

Standard Chartered

The Tropical Landscapes Finance Facility aims to source projects that transform lives and environments, and to securitize the project loans into bonds that will be sold to investors through the MTN markets.

President Tsai’s flagship foreign policy aims to redirect bank lending and investment away from China and towards southeast Asia.

Can Kazakhstan create an international financial centre in the middle of the steppes or is it just the latest central Asian pipe dream?

Highly leveraged and discomfited by escalating tariffs, the world’s most populous nation is holding steady in Euromoney’s survey, with a stronger risk profile than other Brics.

The southeast Asian FX market is on fire and it is set to get a further boost thanks to a combination of political and economic turbulence, a regulator committed to facilitating infrastructure investment and increased interest from non-bank market makers.