Global stocks rose on Thursday after strong Nvidia results eased concerns of a market crash, linked to the perceived overvaluation of AI firms.
Bitcoin, the world’s most established cryptocurrency, also enjoyed a modest lift — rising 0.73% by early afternoon in Europe.
This comes after a hard few months for the token. On Monday it briefly slipped below the $90,000 mark for the first time in seven months before rising to around $91,800 on Thursday.
A turning point in crypto’s trajectory can be traced back to 10 October, when a meltdown wiped out more than $1 trillion in market value across all tokens. More than $19 billion of leveraged crypto positions were offloaded, notably after US President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on China.
“There have been several catalysts (of the recent price drop), but it seems as if the biggest drivers are long-term selling by ‘OGs’, an uncertain economic climate, and a mass deleveraging event on the 10th October,” Nic Puckrin, CEO of Coin Bureau, told Euronews.
“OGs are the term used to describe older Bitcoin holders with massive amounts of Bitcoin. They have been selling for several weeks which has led to a flood of supply hitting the market,” he added.
Analysts note that the US economy is in a period of deep uncertainty at the moment, partly as a government shutdown has prevented the publication of key data releases, with the uncertainty driving crypto lower.
The outcome of the Federal Reserve’s next interest rate decision, due in December, is hanging in the balance — with investors now paring back expectations of a cut.
Transcripts released this week from the Fed’s October meeting show the policy-setting committee deeply divided over whether to reduce the benchmark interest rate.
“Bitcoin is increasingly driven by macro moves,” Puckrin argued.
Analysts fear that as crypto grows more interconnected with mainstream financial markets, contagion will make both crypto assets and stock markets more volatile.
‘A football match with no referee’
Bitcoin reached its price high in October thanks to increased institutional acceptance, expectations of Fed rate cuts, and support from the Trump administration.
For Carol Alexander, crypto expert and finance professor at Sussex University, Bitcoin’s volatility must nonetheless be associated with aggressive trading techniques — rather than simply pointing to the macro environment.
“Bitcoin’s price is determined primarily by the behaviour of professional traders operating on offshore, unregulated trading platforms. These are not hobbyist investors; they are major hedge funds and specialised trading firms,” she told Euronews.
“On these offshore crypto exchanges, professional traders can deploy aggressive order-book strategies — sometimes labelled spoofing or laddering … Their business model relies on generating sharp volatility. They do not care whether the price rises or falls; they care only that it moves quickly.”
In other words, these traders make money from price swings by buying in the dip and selling when crypto rebounds, meaning they aren’t focused on long-term holdings.
The losers in this scenario are often non-professional traders, who can sometimes take on enormous leverage — borrowing money to increase the size of their investments. When the market moves against these investors, they are often forced to sell, losing everything.
“When too many of these non-professional traders have been wiped out, liquidity dries up, and the pros step back,” said Alexander. “At that point, the price often rebounds sharply, encouraging new entrants to join. The whole system behaves like a football match played in a stadium with no referee.”
Puckrin also predicted that crypto is set for a rebound, forecasting that it won’t fall much below current levels.
“I still think it’s a bright future despite the price action. Crypto has been through multiple cycles and it always emerges stronger. We are also seeing the mainstreaming and institutionalisation of the industry. This means more people can use the technology in their daily lives.”
Global Finance Presents 2025 Stars of China Winners.
Best Corporate Bank
China Guangfa Bank
Guangdong Province is ground zero for manufacturers of smartphones, electric vehicles, and robots. It is home to tech giants Tencent and BYD. And its capital, Guangzhou, is home base for a digital champion of corporate finance, China Guangfa Bank, this year’s Best Corporate Bank.
With 1.4 trillion yuan in corporate deposits as of January 1 and 789 billion yuan in corporate loans issued last year, Guangfa is not the country’s largest corporate bank, but true to its Guangdong roots, it leads competitors in digital banking solutions. Its Digital Guangfa strategy complements a stream of improvements in online, mobile, and WeChat banking for corporate clients. Guangfa applies fintech to supply chain services through its e-Second platform, integrating portals and corporate online banking, enabling clients to apply for and sign contracts via mobile device.
For cross-border e-commerce companies, the Guangfa Hui payment system allows one-stop fund collection with real-time and pending exchange settlement, currency withdrawal, and automatic foreign exchange declaration for international settlement, supporting Amazon, among other providers. Guangfa’s corporate arm, meanwhile, is stepping up tech-sector support; its outstanding loan balance to science and tech businesses grew 25% in 2024.
Best Transaction Bank
China Guangfa Bank
Tariffs may slow Chinese export growth, but for now, growth continues. Supporting the country’s export juggernaut are transaction innovations led by China Guangfa Bank, Best Transaction Bank in 2025.
Guangfa has developed a system for integrating corporate billing and supply chain finance services through its international trade and investment service, Cross-Border InstantPass. The service is an umbrella for nine sub-systems including Instant Settlement and Customs Duty InstantPass. The subsystems digitize the entire cross-border transaction process, from export revenue collection and exchange to import payment and letter-of-credit operations. Guangfa also facilitates pilot programs for cross-border trade and investment openness, for example by integrating online banking functions for capital account transactions and making cross-border financing more convenient through streamlined cross-border payments in renminbi.
Best Bank For Renminbi Internationalization
China Guangfa Bank
Proof that the renminbi, or yuan, is gaining global traction is visible worldwide, wherever Chinese engineering companies are building infrastructure. A leader in cross-border, cross-currency banking solutions for these firms, and a major force for renminbi acceptance, is China Guangfa Bank, Best Bank for Renminbi Internationalization this year.
Guangfa enhances the role of renminbi through its Cross-Border RMB Express Channel tool for enterprises, which integrates renminbi and foreign currencies in liquidity pools. The bank also offers state-owned companies an onshore-offshore integrated renminbi and foreign currency settlement system, providing unified allocation of currencies for their domestic and overseas subsidiaries. The customizable system cuts account maintenance costs and drives efficiency by allowing a firm to use its domestic funds to finance overseas projects. It also helps facilitate cross-border goods trading, direct investment, and cross-border financing, addressing the demands of enterprises that likewise advocate renminbi internationalization.
Best Consumer Bank
ICBC
China remains home to the world’s most dedicated savers, despite a trimming of savings deposit rates by big banks in 2024 and again last spring. One bank’s focus on those resilient consumers—for whom basic savings pay rates currently below 1%—rewards loyal depositors while scaling up savings through wealth management products. That bank is ICBC, Best Consumer Bank of 2025.
As of January 1, ICBC held 6.4 trillion yuan in demand deposits and 12 trillion yuan in time deposits from its consumer clients. Responding to consumer demand for greater personal asset growth, ICBC has doubled down as a wealth management provider. In April, it launched a rewards program through its iBean digital services suite and opened a platform that broadens digital services to include investment guidance through an AI-driven wealth management assistant. Anti-fraud and consumer protection measures have been enhanced, and the bank posted a 45% decline in customer complaints for the first half of 2025, year-on-year. It recorded a 93% customer satisfaction rate in 2024, up 2% year-on-year.
Best Bank For Financial Advisory Services
ICBC
Financial firms of all sizes advertise comprehensive advisory services. But scale and initiative are needed to cover all the bases. ICBC leverages its size to deliver a comprehensive range of services, winning Global Finance’s first Best Bank for Financial Advisory Services award.
ICBC’s investment banking division applies its research, risk control, and fintech resources to its ESG Advisory Service, which offers management, transaction, and risk consulting. Its private banking arm recently collaborated with ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management to offer China’s first fund investment advisory scheme for family trusts, complementing a similar scheme for charity trusts.
For small and micro entrepreneurs, the ICBC Matchmaker Platform provides advisory services geared toward full-lifecycle development with planning tools such as business scenario modeling. And corporate banking clients eyeing fundraisers can take advantage of consulting for strategic planning, restructuring plans, and equity private placement. ICBC also offers recommendations for listing sponsors and underwriters to its fundraising clients.
Best Consumer Lending Bank
ICBC
Digital financial advice is nice, but meeting face-to-face across a credit officer’s desk has advantages. ICBC’s retail customers benefit both ways from the bank’s ongoing efforts to enhance their experience both online and offline while boosting consumer support for China’s real economy, making ICBC this year’s Best Consumer Lending Bank.
Between January and June, ICBC’s personal loan portfolio expanded by 213 billion yuan and personal business loans jumped 184 billion yuan. To counteract a weak housing market, the bank beefed up its Housing Ecosystem program, which makes loans for purchases of auctioned property mortgages and makes loans for parking spaces and rental housing. It also promotes marketing for housing developers and real estate agents and in the past year launched a housing resale platform. As of July 1, its residential mortgage portfolio stood at 5.9 trillion yuan.
ICBC has also enhanced its consumer lending programs for electric vehicles and elder care services. Along with expanding its digital offerings, it has broadened personal loan services at branch outlets; today, some 90% of ICBC’s outlets market personal loans, serving 25 million customers.
Best Bank For Sustainable Infrastructure
ICBC
ICBC has adopted a whole-lifecycle approach to sustainable infrastructure finance, offering a toolbox of construction- and development-friendly financing vehicles that helped earn it the title as 2025’s Best Bank for Sustainable Infrastructure.
ICBC provides engineering, construction, and related government contractors what it calls “full-cycle empowerment, full-scenario coverage, and full-market service,” using loans, bonds, M&A, asset restructuring, asset securitization, and REITs to support infrastructure projects at every development stage. Two REIT projects during the past year highlight its success. ICBC issued a 1.06 billion-yuan REIT for wind farms in Inner Mongolia capable of powering up to 150,000 homes while a highway-management REIT worth 5.6 billion yuan is financing Hebei Province’s portion of an expressway serving the tech-focused Xiong’an industrial area.
Innovation In Fintech
ICBC
Fintech’s bells and whistles grab attention, but in the final analysis, income and client growth are what prove an app’s value. Generating value is at the core of ICBC’s effort to create fintech apps that both make money and turn techie heads, earning the bank recognition this year for Innovation in Fintech.
Since introducing customer-banker videoconferencing almost a decade ago, ICBC has set the pace for fintech in China, its innovations underpinned by research with a focus on interactive technologies that appeal to Gen Z clients. ICBC strives to enhance the mobile app experience and build an immersive virtual reality with, for example, virtual digital humans in the form of lifelike 3D avatars with perception, cognition, and facial expressions.
In the financial services area, ICBC credits its “intelligent agent” AI system with logging 42,000 person hours annually, generating 500 million yuan. In the credit domain, a time-saving financial analysis tool has so far reviewed more than 20,000 loans worth a combined 1 trillion yuan.
Best Bank For Belt And Road
ICBC
The world’s largest concentrated solar plant in Dubai, Africa’s tallest building in Cairo, and improvements to South Africa’s Telkom 5G wireless network are a few of the recent projects logged by China’s Belt and Road Initiative with support from ICBC, this year’s Best Bank for Belt and Road.
ICBC has arranged project finance for hundreds of projects in more than 70 countries while serving as a customer partner for cross-border cooperation in areas including export credit, syndicated loans, lease factoring, and advisory services as well as for financing projects, cross-border M&A, aircraft, and ships. Chinese enterprises have benefited from infrastructure contracts and new trade channels facilitated by ICBC. The bank is a financial advisor for major oil, gas, and mineral projects involving resource development, pipeline storage, and product terminals and a resource development advisor to Fortune 500 companies.
Most Innovative Asset Manager
China International Capital Corp.
For asset managers serving Chinese government entities, the quest for return is an exercise in balancing low-risk appetite and statemandated support for innovative investment targets such as technology stocks. The asset management arm of China International Capital Corp. (CICC), 30 years old in 2025, balances these objectives in a competitive market; it chalked up a 13% annual gain in asset management income to 1.3 billion yuan in 2024 and wins this year’s Most Innovative Asset Manager award.
The National Social Security Fund and corporate annuities were among 738 portfolios managed by CICC in 2024, contributing to total assets under management of 552 billion yuan and benefiting some 50 million people. CICC found innovative ways to deliver returns despite a soft economy in 2024 that prompted heightened compliance and risk control requirements for Chinese asset managers. The firm broadened corporate coverage and enhanced digital and platform capabilities to improve quality of customer service while contributing to Beijing’s national goals by supporting growth in technology, green, pension, and digital finance.
Best Bank For Overseas Branch Services
Bank of China
Global footprints vary for international banks. Some cover a few major cities; others, like Bank of China (BOC)—winner of 2025’s Best Bank for Overseas Branch Services award—stretch out with branches even in distant lands.
Beijing’s strategic moves, such as the Belt and Road Initiative for infrastructure construction, the renminbi internationalization effort, and its free trade zone agreements, have spurred BOC’s overseas expansion. Its services for trade partners and Chinese expats are extensive and easy to find; the most recent branch openings, in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, brought the number of countries and regions with BOC physical bank outlets to 64, including 44 Belt and Road countries.
Since becoming the world’s first renminbi clearing bank in 2003, BOC has expanded to provide clearing services in 16 regions of Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Renminbi clearing banks opened this year in Port Louis, Mauritius, and Vientiane, Laos. Established branches in New York, London, Milan, Seoul, and Tokyo augment BOC’s global footprint.
Best Bank For Green Bonds
Bank of China
Chinese green bond issues passed the half-trillion-dollar mark last year, solidifying the country as a top global bond issuer for renewable energy, electric vehicles, and other environmentally friendly efforts. Driving this success is Bank of China, the most active Chinese-funded institution for domestic and international green bond underwriting for the past five years and 2025’s Best Bank for Green Bonds.
The bond framework gives international investors an avenue to support China’s development. Recent highlights include the world’s first sustainability-linked green and social bonds, issued through the bank’s subsidiary in Frankfurt, Germany, which raised 2.5 billion yuan. BOC’s branch in Dubai issued in September 2024 a $400 million green bond to fund renewable energy and non-carbon transportation projects in the United Arab Emirates. And BOC was lead underwriter on Brazilian pulp producer Suzano’s 1.2 billion yuan green bond, issued in China as a panda bond.
Best Bank For Risk Management
Bank of China
Chinese banks strive to optimize their credit structure while serving the national economy. A recent dip in the real estate market—a key driver of GDP growth—has complicated that effort. Bank of China (BOC) has risen to the challenge by balancing its approach to real estate credit and its support for national economic goals, earning it Best Bank for Risk Management honors.
In step with government policy directing financial institutions to place equal emphasis on home rentals and home ownership, BOC’s corporate unit has tweaked its risk management strategy to expand financing for rental housing development companies, including government-subsidized housing and urban villages. BOC is also a conduit for government debt relief measures. And it has adjusted its credit strategy by, for example, adopting a data tracking system for credit risk monitoring and an early warning mechanism.
Star Of Hong Kong
CMB Wing Lung Bank
Covid-era questions about Hong Kong’s future as a hub of international finance have fallen by the wayside with the tightening of business ties between the mainland and the city. Encouraging tighter oversight are cross-border equities trading schemes, bond exchanges, and Hong Kong banks that also operate in mainland cities including Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Foremost among these multi-city banks is CMB Wing Lung Bank, a subsidiary of the mainland’s China Merchants Bank and Star of Hong Kong.
Capitalizing on Hong Kong’s status as a Chinese semiautonomous region with legacy global business ties, CMB Wing Lung boasts more than 30 branches and business outlets in Hong Kong, Macau, and China and is licensed in each jurisdiction for corporate banking, bond trading, foreign exchange business, and wealth management. This year, the bank was approved as a renminbi foreign exchange market maker for the China Foreign Exchange Trade System Free Trade Zone to execute transactions for institutional clients. Earlier, it launched a family office advisory service for high-net-worth families, sparking double-digit growth in private banking and private wealth management-related assets under management between last December and June.
CMB Wing Lung also operates an app used by 420,000 mainland and Hong Kong customers.
Best Bank For M&A
China Merchants Bank
Roadshows can fall into a rut when bank-organized M&A presentations turn routine. China Merchants Bank has abandoned formulaic roadshows, applying a fresh approach to its stream of high-profile M&A projects that helped win the 2025 Best Bank for M&A award.
CMB’s M&A Buyer-Seller Service System, an information exchange platform for equity and institutional investors eyeing M&A action, is part of this success story. The platform enhanced the bank’s 270-plus roadshows last year with project-targeted advisory services while advising potential investors on transaction design, channel matching, and due diligence.
In the past year, CMB has helped public companies raise more than 100 billion yuan while sponsoring an assortment of deals involving high-profile companies from hypermarket retailer Sun Art to jewelry giant Chow Tai Fook. Against the backdrop of a recent slowdown in M&A volume in China, CMB’s business has grown, finalizing projects in 2024 valued at about 190 billion yuan.
Best Private Bank For Sustainable Investing
China Merchants Bank
Private banking serves a discriminating clientele, many of whom are particularly concerned to build their portfolio around sustainable investments. China Merchants Bank’s private banking division recently stepped up consumer rights protection and established an ESG secretariat, factors that helped distinguish it as this year’s Best Private Bank for Sustainable Investing.
The secretariat, which reports to CMB’s head office, optimizes ESG information disclosure and conducts sustainability knowledge promotion and education. Its annually updated consumer rights protection plan incorporates financial education promotion at the bank’s headquarters and branches, with a stated commitment to “public welfare, effectiveness, innovation, and sustainability.”
CMB reported a 13.6% increase in its private banking customers between 2023 and 2024, to some 169,000.
Best Bank For Business Transformation
Agricultural Bank of China
Beijing’s clarion call for financial institutions to support domestic consumption hit home with the country’s largest rural lender, Agricultural Bank of China, which has responded by launching an assortment of consumerf riendly lending and other programs. Its rapid response required flexibility and significant change, earning it this year’s title as Best Bank for Business Transformation.
Writing in a People’s Bank of China publication, ABC Executive Vice President Lin Li described efforts to support consumers whose expenditures contributed to 44% of China’s economic growth last year. Efforts included targeted financing for home improvements as well as helping consumers swap used for new appliances and vehicles. ABC has also stepped up design work on local consumer lending programs tailored for China’s huge population and diverse rural and urban markets. This year, the bank is expected to better the 561 billion yuan in personal consumption loans it reported in 2024.
ABC is also targeting small and micro enterprises engaged in export as part of a broader lending approach. For the first three months of 2025, the bank reported 131.2 billion yuan in loans to 17,200 such enterprises.
Best Private Bank
Bank of Communications
For some private banks, client investment research is just a box to check on a to-do list. For others, investment research is woven into the fabric of their daily activities. The latter describes the private banking division of Bank of Communications, recognized this year as Best Private Bank.
BOCOM branch teams integrate research support for private banking clients through the entire workflow process: tracking economic and asset market trends, identifying allocation opportunities, and warning of risks. A WeChat channel and the bank’s mobile app broadcast research reports weekly, monthly, and quarterly. The bank also offers personalized investment advice. Clients receive BOCOM’s internal research, bolstered by daily morning and weekly strategy meetings. Biweekly, clients can access the bank’s trademark Single Chart to Understand Investment report on asset allocation.
Last year, research supported the launch of a US dollar wealth product for BOCOM’s private bank clients that earned a healthy 11.95% annual rate.
Most Innovative Private Bank
Huaxia Bank
Private banking has been an eager adopter of digital solutions for portfolio and asset allocation tasks. But private clients get more than digital basics at Huaxia Bank, recognized this year as Most Innovative Private Bank.
Huaxia’s digital tools cover internal asset allocation, asset diagnosis, and product portfolio management, supporting local branch marketing efforts and customer management. The bank has developed asset allocation and investment research report functions that automatically offer clients asset allocation strategies. The bank also offers an asset allocation “simulation competition” platform that simulates positionbuilding, allowing users to build product portfolio and allocation strategies around various asset positions; it also uses simulation to train staff.
Huaxia’s in-house digital arsenal also includes monitoring tools such as post-investment transaction and performance tracking. These complement the bank’s unique index of green and low-carbon companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges. In 2021, the CSI Huaxia Bank New Economy Wealth Index became the industry’s first to spotlight green and low-carbon activities promoted by the government.
Best Private Bank For Entrepreneurs
Ping An Bank
Chinese entrepreneurs may succeed on their own, but they also learn from successful competitors. Ping An Bank satisfies that personal drive and competitive curiosity by organizing client tours of companies ranging from electronic device maker iFlytek to Shaanxi Auto, disseminating best practices and fostering industry collaboration. These learning events helped earn Ping An the title as Best Private Bank for Entrepreneurs for 2025.
Facility tours are one perk the bank offers entrepreneur clients through its Qi Wang Hui, or Enterprise Vision Association, platform. The service helps them expand their sales channels through a mobile commerce platform, offers image building to enhance media visibility, and provides access to Ping An’s consumer commerce system and nationwide database of highnet-worth individuals. On the financial side, Ping An’s entrepreneurial solutions cover investment, wealth management, corporate governance, and private lifestyle services.
Best Private Bank For Ultra High Net Worth Individuals
China Construction Bank
China’s highest wealth bracket is trending higher. No wonder this year’s Best Private Bank for Ultra High Net Worth Individuals is a mobile institution with offices around the world: China Construction Bank.
Teams of private banking professionals have offices at each CCB Private Banking Center in London, New York, Toronto, Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore, and Hong Kong, complementing similar centers in more than 200 Chinese cities. When overseas, private bank clients in the ultra-high-net-worth bracket—including individuals, families, and executives—can do business in their native tongue with an account manager and get help streamlining communications with local government authorities.
Best Wealth Management Provider
YOUMY Family Office
YOUMY Family Office, a niche firm, serves more than 500 Chinese ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families and is this year’s Best Wealth Management Provider. A pioneer in China’s family office field, in the decade since its launch, YOUMY has invested more than 10 million yuan annually in data and investment research systems. The result has been continuous improvement in the capabilities and resources it offers for family asset management in the legal, tax planning, and asset allocation areas.
YOUMY today manages some 15 billion yuan in client assets while its minority foreign shareholder, Italy’s Azimut, manages about 650 billion yuan. YOUMY also acts as a resource for other firms, providing consulting and training to more than 100 smaller family offices.
Best Bank For Corporate Social Responsibility
DBS Bank (China)
It began years ago as an initiative to help fledgling entrepreneurs in areas such as low-income health care. Today, the DBS Foundation is a far-reaching nonprofit tasked with encouraging entrepreneurs as well as youth education, the environment, and community building across China. Behind it is DBS Bank (China), 2025’s Best Bank for Corporate Social Responsibility.
DBS integrates social enterprise support into its corporate culture by procuring goods and services from target enterprises for employee and client events. Strategic partnerships drive community programs that lift the lives of vulnerable groups. To date, more than 33 million yuan in donations have funded 1,000 socially involved enterprises. The foundation also contributes to online financial education for 140,000 students in rural schools. In March, it helped launch a program of home renovations for low-income families with schoolchildren needing study space. In July, innovating elder care in Shanghai and Singapore was the topic of a cross-border conference backed by the bank’s Impact Beyond Dialogue program.
Most Innovative Bank
China Zheshang Bank
Small and medium-sized enterprises selling products overseas are frequently vexed by foreign exchange volatility. To help SMEs in Zhejiang Province, the provincial branch of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange recently launched an online financial services platform that facilitates low-cost FX hedging and derivatives. When the platform went live, China Zheshang Bank became the country’s first bank to put it to work, helping earn it the title as 2025’s Most Innovative Bank.
CZ Bank also reported the initiative’s first success story when a garment exporter in Shaoxing locked in the yuan-US dollar exchange rate for a deal worth $1.2 million. The derivatives contract was completed at a fraction of the usual cost and in one day, not the usual three. As of July 1, CZ Bank had provided exchange rate hedging to about 3,600 SMEs.
While incorporating the FX services platform into its customer operations, the bank has introduced several custom hedging plans that help SMEs choose the best FX settlement period according to their risk tolerance. It also opened a financial consulting studio in July for exchange rate hedging, reaching 500,000 customers online.
Innovation In Payments
SY Holdings
The fast-fashion business model that’s propelled Asian e-commerce companies to superstar status is not without challenges. So-called shipped-but-unsettled orders that go out before customer payments are received pose a challenge that SY Holdings tackles for clients, earning the Shenzhen-based fintech this year’s Innovation in Payments award.
SY operates a self-developed, AI-driven industrial intelligence platform with risk control, supplier management, supply chain process, inventory, and procurement functions. Since 2013, it has helped arrange some 270 billion yuan in order procurement and financing services for more than 19,000 SMEs. Notably, it has facilitated working capital for e-commerce companies with shipped-but-unsettled orders, including SHEIN and Shopee, by embedding digital financing services into client platforms. As of June, SY reported this payments service had increased clients’ working capital eightfold year-on-year.
Best SME Services Bank
Postal Savings Bank of China
Action speaks louder than words for any bank committed to doing business with SMEs in China’s entrepreneurial climate. From matchmaking marketing events for potential clients to loans for grain farmers, Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC) has taken an innovative approach to the sector, distinguishing it as 2025’s Best SME Services Bank.
PSBC regularly uses customized marketing maps to dispatch 10,000 financial agents from the bank’s 40,000 outlets to engage SMEs nationwide. Needs are assessed and services tailored. In one recent month, more than 4,000 matchmaking events and 5,000 product introductions involved some 150,000 businesses. Novel product offerings include the U Grain Easy Loan high-credit-limit program for SMEs doing grain storage and processing, attesting to PSBC’s deep roots with China’s farmers and commitment to national food security. The bank also built last year a digital platform for SMEs that streamlines tax planning, payroll, and other functions, serving 74,000 clients as of December 2024. As of January 1, PSBC reported 1.63 trillion yuan in outstanding SME loans, accounting for 18% of all its lending.
Best Asset Manager
China AMC
While some tap the brakes, China is forging ahead with carbon-cutting energy and green investment initiatives. Powering the expansion are institutions like China AMC, which boasts a fast-growing assets under management and the country’s largest client base and is this year’s Best Asset Manager.
Underscoring China AMC’s influence as an active promoter of environmentally friendly investment targets is its expansive clientele, which includes more than 240 million retail and 313,000 institutional investors. The firm in 2018 was the first Chinese financial institution to join Berkshire Hathaway, Tata Steel, and other giants in the Climate Action 100+ initiative as well as the first Chinese asset manager where a CEO-led, firm-level ESG Committee supervises implementation of ESG strategies. China AMC’s offices have been carbon neutral for three years.
Best Foreign Bank Asset Manager
CMB International Asset Management
Financial services from asset management to private equity funds are following investors as they crisscross the border between the mainland and Hong Kong. A leader in keeping abreast of the cross-border pace is CMB International Asset Management, this year’s Best Foreign Bank Asset Manager.
A subsidiary of China Merchants Bank, CMBIAM is registered in Hong Kong and listed as a qualified foreign institutional investor in Beijing, enabling it to provide advisory services to securities and asset management clients on the mainland while based in Hong Kong. Supplying diverse investment strategies in equities and bonds, private equity, funds of funds, and customized investment products, it also offers cross-border investments as well as services in Asia Pacific and global capital markets. The bank’s Hong Kong public funds business started at zero in February 2024 and in 13 months grew to HK$23 billion (about $2.95 billion) in assets.
Most Advancing Trading Technology
CMB Wealth Management
Wealth management providers are a popular equity and bond trading channel for retail investors shifting out of real estate and savings accounts. CMB Wealth Management has made technology, including AI, an integral part of its service in this area, earning it the honor for 2025’s Most Advancing Trading Technology.
CMB Wealth has grown rapidly since opening its doors in 2019, with bond trading more than doubling and transactions climbing fivefold. An example of its innovative approach is its self-developed HARBOR platform, which integrates investment research, trading, settlement, risk management, accounting, disclosure, and regulatory reporting. Enhancing the platform is an AI bond trading bot, which CMB Wealth introduced in 2023 and which proactively monitors bonds for portfolio managers. When external price movements occur, the bot triggers alerts, enabling the manager to react and avoid missing target prices. It also provides automated compliance alerts.
Shares in Nvidia rose more than 5% in after-hours trading after the chipmaker beat analysts’ expectations in its quarterly earnings report, released Wednesday.
In the three months to the end of October, Nvidia said its revenue jumped 62% to $57 billion (€49.49bn). The company reported $51.2bn (€44.43bn) in revenue from data-centre sales, beating expectations of $49bn (€42.52bn).
The firm also placed a forecast for the current quarter at $65bn (€56.41bn), surpassing Wall Street expectations of $61bn (€52.94bn).
“There’s been a lot of talk about an AI bubble,” said CEO Jensen Huang during an earnings call.
“From our vantage point, we see something very different. As a reminder, Nvidia is unlike any other accelerator. We excel at every phase of AI from pre-training to post-training to inference.”
Nvidia is now the largest stock on Wall Street, having momentarily surpassed $5 trillion in value. That means it has an outsized influence on the S&P 500 and can make or break the market’s daily performance.
The firm has also become a bellwether for the broader frenzy around AI, notably because other companies rely on Nvidia chips for this technology.
AI stocks have taken a hit in recent weeks as investors questioned whether certain tech companies had been overvalued, driving fears of a market crash.
Before Wednesday’s earnings report, Nvidia’s chips had dropped 11% from their peak in early November.
CEO Huang sought to ease concerns of a bubble on Wednesday, claiming: “AI is going everywhere, doing everything, all at once.” He noted that Nvidia was focused on major transition areas, namely generative, agentic, and physical AI.
Generative AI can create things, agentic can accomplish a specific goal with limited supervision, while physical AI relates to the physical world — for example through robots.
A French court rejected all claims brought by UFC-Que Choisir against Perrier, after the consumer group claimed the firm’s natural mineral water was deceptively labelled.
In early June, UFC-Que Choisir filed an emergency motion with a court in Nanterre near Paris seeking a recall of all Perrier bottles in circulation, as well as a temporary ban on sales of the natural mineral water.
The case centred on a dispute over the use of a filtration treatment, which the group said was contrary to French and European law. UFC-Que Choisir also claimed that the water posed health risks.
UFC-Que Choisir insisted that its demands would not have caused Perrier’s Vergèze plant to close, but it hoped that the bottles produced there would be sold as drinking water and not natural mineral water.
The consumer group noted that natural mineral water typically sells for 100 to 300 times the price of tap water.
Nestlé says decision proves Perrier’s food safety is ‘guaranteed’
The court in Nanterre said a health risk to consumers was not proven to the level required for an emergency ruling, a ruling welcomed by Nestlé.
“Today’s decision confirms that the food safety of Perrier natural mineral waters has always been guaranteed”, it said.
The company said it operates under an integrated quality management system, shared with, and controlled by, the relevant authorities to ensure the food safety of all its products.
“The results of our analyses are constantly shared with the authorities who regularly test our mineral waters, both at source and the finished product, to confirm compliance with the applicable regulatory requirements, including food safety and quality standards.”
UFC-Que Choisir must pay €5,000 to Nestlé, according to a court statement.
The Nanterre ruling was the latest twist in a series of scandals hounding Nestlé in France.
In a 2024 report, the Occitanie Regional Health Agency (ARS) warned of the possibility of halting Perrier production because ofpersistent bacterial contaminationin water drawn from wells at the Vergèze plant.
An inquiry commissioned by France’s Senate then found that the French government had covered up the use of illegal water treatments for years, particularly with regard to Nestlé.
Nestlé said it has since stopped using these prohibited treatments, instead switching to its current filtration methods.
The Netherlands announced on Wednesday that it is suspending state control of Chinese chipmaker Nexperia after “constructive” talks with Chinese authorities.
The decision marks a de-escalation after several weeks of dispute between the Hague and Beijing over the export of chips that play an essential role in the European automotive sector.
“In light of recent developments, I consider it the right moment to take a constructive step by suspending my order under the Goods Availability Act regarding Nexperia,” Dutch Economy minister Vincent Karremans wrote on X.
The dispute began on 30 September when the Dutch government invoked the Goods Availability Act to take control of Nexperia over fears of technology transfers from the company’s Dutch plant to facilities in China.
Beijing retaliated by restricting exports of the Nexperia’s finished chips from China, triggering shortages in the global automotive industry.
The government said on Wednesday that the resumption of exports now appeared to be assured.
“In the past few days we have had constructive meetings with the Chinese authorities,” Karremans said, adding: “We are positive about the measures already taken by the Chinese authorities to ensure the supply of chips to Europe and the rest of the world.”
In a letter sent to the Dutch Parliament on Wednesday, Karremans wrote that “Chinese authorities currently appear to be granting permission to companies from European and other countries to export Nexperia chips.”
However, he also added a note of caution.
“A duty to provide information remains in effect: the company must inform me about the transfer of production resources and knowledge between its facilities.”
Supply crisis eases off
The impasse seemed to ease at the end of October following a meeting between the Chinese and the US in South Korea at which both sides agreed to a truce in their bilateral trade dispute.
After a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on October 30, China said it would start accepting applications for exports of Nexperia chips from Chinese facilities to ease what was becoming a global shortage.
However, Karremans told the media last week that he had no regrets about his assertive approach to the chipmaker.
EU trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič welcomed the Dutch decision on X saying it was “another key step in stabilising our strategic chip supply chains.”
Last Friday, Šefčovič told Euronews the dispute was a warning that the EU needs to diversify its supply of strategic products since they can now be “weaponised” by third countries.
European stocks showed mixed signals on Wednesday, somewhat easing fears of a global market crash.
At around midday, Germany’s DAX was up less than 1%, while the UK’s FTSE 100 and Spain’s IBEX 35 also saw modest lifts.
Italy’s FTSE MIB dropped less than 1%, as did France’s CAC 40.
Both the STOXX 50 and the wider STOXX 600 showed minimal movement.
Investors kept an eye on data releases on Wednesday, with UK inflation easing to 3.6% in October, down from 3.8% in July, August, and September.
The annual inflation rate in the eurozone, meanwhile, came in at 2.1% in October, a confirmation of a preliminary reading. That’s down from 2.2% in September.
“Investors will breathe a sigh of relief that the market sell-off has lost momentum,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
“It’s the good news everyone wanted. The key question is whether this is simply the calm before the storm.”
In Asian trading on Wednesday, markets were broadly in the red.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.34%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.38%, South Korea’s Kospi slid 0.61%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slid 0.25%. China’s SSE Composite rose 0.18%.
After a day of losses on Tuesday, Wall Street showed signs of optimism on Wednesday.
Ahead of the opening bell, S&P 500 futures were up 0.30%, while Dow Jones futures increased 0.12%. Nasdaq futures were trading 0.37% higher.
Investors around the world are awaiting third-quarter results from chipmaker Nvidia, set for release later on Wednesday.
Nvidia’s performance matters disproportionately because its immense size means it’s the most influential stock on Wall Street. Its financial report will also influence the narrative around an AI bubble and fears that tech stocks may be overvalued.
“Nvidia reports tonight and the slightest bit of news to disappoint investors has the potential to whip up a tornado across global markets,” said Mould.
“Investors will be hanging on Jensen Huang’s every word and looking for clues that big investment in AI is worth it.”
GF: Alan, describe the dynamic between your R&D team and business units. How do you ensure innovative ideas are adopted?
Sung: On my first day, my boss told me, ‘Alan, we are a cost center, not a profit center. Therefore, we must prioritize development based on our business unit’s needs.’ We operate on an 80/20 strategy: 80% dedicated to specific business user case needs.
The remaining 20% is for ‘value mode,’ developing new technologies like generative AI. During this time, we conduct proofs of concept (POCs).
Once we generate a minimum viable product, we present it to business units. If interested, we conduct a tailored POC to demonstrate real-world benefit to their business processes. Finally, we scale and expand our algorithms or AI core engines.
GF: We spoke about fear of data and AI. What skills are you prioritizing in new hires, and how are you upskilling existing staff?
Hasson: When hiring for product management, we prioritize candidates with AI experience. Practical AI experience and an open mindset is essential. Second, understanding data is crucial; effective data design improves data lineage and integration with AI tooling. Third, design skills are key. A skilled designer with prototyping abilities can rapidly develop ideas, enabling quick failure on numerous concepts – testing many ideas in a few days and narrowing to two or three for further investigation. This efficiency requires the right mindset and correct application. Practical experience and its application are extremely important
Schmidt: AI experience is now a necessity for new hires. We provide continuous training for our CGI partners, ensuring they remain current – crucial because AI tools and opportunities constantly evolve. Staying updated with market trends and tools is essential for productivity. Understanding the capabilities of these tools, whether generative, agentic, or for code generation, is vital.
Hasson: Hackathons, common in software development, involve collaborative coding to solve problems. A modern adaptation for general work is a “prompt-a-thon,” which is a good way to enthuse people about using AI. In these sessions, participants use prompts to generate creative solutions in small groups. The ideas are often excellent, and I highly recommend them.
Sung: Firstly, we define who can use AI. Secondly, we need to effectively communicate with our online users about how to use these AI tools, as they often perceive AI as a “black box” – incorrectly assuming it’s very simple. Therefore, it’s crucial to equip employees with skills like using Copilot, prompt engineering, and context engineering to integrate the full context into the agent mode. Employing people who understand how to use authentic AI in today’s landscape is very important.
Panchmatia: We examine this from several angles. First, the functional aspect requires familiarity with technology, especially LLMs and their ecosystem. While this functional knowledge is important and teachable, the greater challenge, given widespread AI adoption, lies in developing core competencies. We’re increasingly focusing on curiosity, tenacity, change management, and adaptability. This is where people need to evolve.
Learning and using prompts is valuable, but AI will profoundly change how work is done, necessitating a re-evaluation of processes, organizational structure, and metrics. This shift is coming soon. The human element of the organization needs to be prepared. People must become curious, ask questions, be adaptable, and possess tenacity, because things will change and it won’t always be easy.
Consider Jeff, who has been doing his job for 25 years. His role won’t disappear, but it will transform significantly. The question is: how do we enable people to make that transition? Soft skills will be incredibly important and likely distinguish those who succeed.
Towards this, we have doubled down on our upskilling efforts to ensure that employees continue to stay relevant even as AI reshapes operating models. We have rolled out bankwide access to Gen AI Training, including workshops, e-learning, live webinars, covering foundational and technical GenAI topics as well as Responsible Data Use. Since this year, we have identified more than 12,000 employees for upskilling or reskilling, and with nearly all of them commencing their respective learning roadmaps, including on skills such as AI and data.
GF: Looking at your own teams, what specific skill has become more valuable now that AI is part of the workflow? Conversely, what skills have become less critical?
Panchmatia: Number one, you have to be curious. It’s interesting because outside of work, everyone uses an AI app, but at work, it’s the opposite. That curiosity applied to work would be amazing. Repetitive tasks are likely to be automated. But remember, AI only knows what we’ve told it. It doesn’t create new stuff. So, human curiosity and creativity are important. Mundane tasks, like data entry or analysts summarizing hundreds of pages, will change. It doesn’t mean the person loses their job; they’ll have the ability to use their creativity and curiosity.
Schmidt: I’d add critical thinking. You’re working with various models and getting feedback. There have been many times I’ve thought, “That’s not right.” So, we tweak it. Being able to refine and question is going to be more important because, for so many jobs, it’s repetitive. You don’t have time to question; you only have time to do. So, with agents doing some of these things, being able to ask, “Are we doing this the right way? Can we revolutionize this?” That’s where bigger breakthroughs will come from.
Hasson: There’s also a point of scrutiny. We use AI to identify software vulnerabilities and recommend corrections. But a senior person must still verify it’s doing the right thing. We assume it’s good and correct, and most of the time it is. But what if it isn’t? Who provides the oversight? You still need someone with that level of scrutiny to ensure it’s truly correct.
GF: Alan, how does the R&D department manage the risk of AI-driven fraud and ensure the security of AI models themselves? Are there specific emerging threats that keep you awake at night?
Sung: Fraud is changing very fast. Traditionally, we used statistical or machine learning rules, but that’s not enough. At CTBC, we built our AI-powered fraud detection and prevention system, AI Skynet, which learns from cross-channel data, finds hidden patterns, and reduces false positives. Nowadays, fraudsters operate within an ecosystem, so we are building our own antifraud ecosystem connecting with the police and third parties, including the Financial Supervisory Commission and regulators, to build anti-fraud transactions through a profiling project. When money is transferred from account A to account C, the bank only sees the direct link. However, third parties like the Financial Information Service (FISC) can track the full transaction path, allowing us to alert other banks involved to help find the bad guys. Ultimately, preventing scams requires a collaborative ecosystem, not just individual bank efforts.
GF: How can Agentic AI be used to build a financial ecosystem that is efficient, transparent, and auditable?
Panchmatia: Agentic AI is very new. The ideas are fantastic, with great applications in retail and travel. However, the necessary technology to run this ecosystem isn’t yet fully available. While promising, current platforms are far from providing the traceability, auditability, and policy management required for strict banking processes. By definition, a human gives an agent agency, essentially representing a human being. When hiring an employee, policies dictate who they can communicate with and what systems they can access. How will we manage this with an entity that possesses human agency?
Significant thought and technological development are needed. We are achieving good results with agentic technology in straightforward applications like marketing and behavioural science, and complex ones like end-to-end credit processing for large corporations. However, I’m not sure we’ll declare victory within the next 6 or 12 months. There’s significant opportunity, and we continue to innovate. While progress will come in ‘bits and pieces,’ we must avoid ‘pilotitis,’ a problem we encountered with Generative AI. If this happens again with agentic AI, the ‘trough of disillusionment’ will be prolonged. Many aspects are still developing. Our approach should be to fully commit, but with the understanding that not all problems are solved, and we will incur technical debt, which must be managed properly. We are a long way from declaring victory in the agentic space.
Schmidt: For any new initiative like this, transparency is paramount. Clearly define objectives and co-design the solution with your financial institution, ideally involving regulators. The design must prioritize transparency, demonstrating underlying work and decision-making. Thorough testing is crucial, with continuous adjustments. Additionally, carefully assess and communicate the risk profile to all partners. Finally, consider not only how to commercialize this offering, but also how to provide ongoing support, identify future directions, and facilitate easy entry into new markets.
Hasson: I love this conversation. Imagine reconciling data, finding a discrepancy, and needing to allocate it for resolution. Traditionally, an agent figures out who to allocate it to. Now, think of an Agentic system – an automated assistant – employed to allocate this work. How do you know it’s done the right thing? What level of trust do you place in it?
Just as with a human employee, you’d implement scrutiny checks and balances. At the moment, you need to apply this same principle of scrutiny and oversight to Agentic systems. While Agentic capabilities can create massive value, what happens when an error goes unnoticed, potentially leading to significant issues? You could potentially have another agent checking the work, like a teacher marking homework. But how do you know they’re working correctly?
Hasson: That’s a different problem, but we need to reach a level of maturity where we can trust something. What can we trust? Honestly, not very much at the moment. Generative AI is great for anything that doesn’t have a right answer. It can generate good content, but is it always correct? If you ask it for 2 + 2, it’s probably right. But for almost anything else, is it right? No, it’s not. It’s somewhere between bad and good. Therefore, it’s crucial to implement checks and balances and not give it free rein, which is truly tricky.
GF: Moving on to MCPs. Unlike traditional APIs, which primarily handle static requests, a Model Context Protocol acts as a standardized “language” for AI applications to communicate effectively with external services. How does adopting an MCP enable new AI-driven opportunities for efficiency and personalized customer service, while creating a robust framework for managing data security, regulatory compliance, and model explainability?
Panchmatia: MCP, like APIs in the past, is an industry imperative. The positive development is the rapid establishment of common protocols, preventing fragmentation.
However, MCP introduces new risk management considerations. Unlike strict APIs, MCP incorporates context, allowing for probabilistic outcomes. Consequently, it necessitates robust guardrails. This could involve additional AI models for accuracy verification or human oversight. These aspects require careful thought.
The exciting development is the agreement on protocols for model and agent communication within the industry. This standardization will significantly reduce waste and uncertainty. While MCP adoption isn’t optional for many and brings numerous benefits, it also comes with inherent risks, some not yet fully understood. Therefore, similar to generative AI, it’s crucial to proceed step-by-step: test, evaluate, then gradually expand implementation.
Sung: MCP offers a great chance to strengthen our AI governance framework. Before MCP, it was like searching a huge library with each department having its own catalog. MCP is like the Dewey Decimal System. Imagine an assistant helping you find a book and providing extra information.
We are not a technology company, but we can use MCP to build an AI governance framework on top of it, as it provides a single point of standardized control. We can integrate auditing, access checks, and data review directly into the workflow.
Previously, with multiple vendor systems and API frameworks, applying AI governance consistently was hard. If we adopt MCP and ask every bank and vendor to implement a MCP server, we can enforce the same AI governance, perform identity checks, and analyse model interactions in a unified way. This is the direction we should take.
Hasson: I was at a conference recently where one of the guys who helped establish the MCP framework expressed a degree of uncertainty about its success, which was interesting. He says it is so much about using it the right way for it to be amazing. From my perspective, MCP presents a significant opportunity. Consider a “break” – where a user manually retrieves data to fix a problem.
While an API might exist, budget constraints often prevent development to connect it. However, the excitement around MCP could incentivize organizations to publish access to their systems for internal collaboration.
This creates an opening to expose those APIs, allowing for automated connections. The “break” could then be automatically resolved by fetching necessary information, eliminating manual intervention. I believe MCP’s novelty will open doors to such solutions.
GF: Finally, what is the biggest technological or organizational challenge the financial industry must solve to unlock AI’s full potential in the next five years? And what is the most exciting opportunity you foresee once that challenge is overcome?
Schmidt: As with any opportunity, a lack of daring or imagination gets in the way, particularly identifying true product value propositions. If we don’t push the envelope, we won’t achieve its full potential. At the same time, I worry about complacency. Just saying a process is working fine. But if something changes a seemingly stable process, for instance, if a data set changes and starts making errors that grow exponentially, you have a much bigger problem.
Panchmatia: I’d say the biggest challenge is structural, not technological. Banks have been organized in silos for over 150 years. This means work is thrown across departments, while the customer experiences a horizontal journey. AI will change this, forcing banks to think deeply about their approach. Many consulting firms focus on technology implementation, but I believe the real problem is structural, impacting processes and more.
The biggest opportunity is that if banks can move away from these costly vertical pillars, it could profoundly impact their cost-to-income ratio, making banking an investable stock at the level of tech companies. At DBS, we’re most excited because it will open up markets we couldn’t scale before due to our size and allow us into previously inaccessible markets due to capital restrictions, capacity, and talent. It opens up many possibilities.
GF: Rounding up: to ensure a successful AI initiative, begin with a clear starting point and rethink existing workflows. Prioritize data quality and robust governance. Focus on augmenting human talent, establishing a strong framework, and implementing effective risk management strategies.
It’s crucial to define clear business value and metrics. When hiring, prioritize candidates with AI experience and adaptability, and foster critical thinking and scrutiny within your team. Overcome any structural challenges.
The future of AI in finance is not a distant concept; it’s already here. Therefore, it’s essential to start experimenting, learning, and adapting now.
Global Finance presents this year’s 25 safest banks in China.
As the US trade war with China continues to escalate, with each side ramping up export restrictions on specific products and commodities, a satisfactory resolution seems unlikely. The US has announced plans to impose a 100% tariff on Chinese imports in November, following China’s expansion of export controls on rare earth commodities used in semiconductor and chip production.
As this issue goes to press, global attention is fixed on South Korea, where Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump are set to hold talks, with an opportunity for progress in resolving trade tensions. In the run-up to this meeting, there are no signs that both sides wish to defuse the situation. But, new US tariffs continue to emerge that are further increasing pressure and threatening to leave any agreement wobbly. These include new US duties on lumber, kitchen cabinets, upholstered furniture, and used cooking oil, while both sides have added fees on port docking for ships. In the meantime, China is forging more-durable trade pacts with other countries.
The trade war represents a significant concern for the Chinese banking sector, given its large base of commercial and corporate clients that provide services and manufacturing across many industries.
However, China’s trade volume has held up despite the ongoing tariff war with the US. Foreign trade grew during the first nine months of 2025 by 4% year over year, with exports rising more than 7%, even as exports to the US dropped 33% in August and 27% in September, according to China’s General Administration of Customs. Some of this growth is attributable to the front-loading of trade volume as tension has heated up, but China is also adapting to trade disruptions by strengthening its global trade alliances and establishing new supply chains. It has increasingly redirected exports to Europe and Southeast Asia, with trade volumes to those regions rising over 14% and close to 16%, respectively.
While these moves have softened the impact of US trade policy, Chinese banks continue to weather a sluggish domestic economy while facing a struggling real estate sector plagued by oversupply, shrinking investment, and developer insolvency. Overall, GDP growth is forecast to fall from 5% in 2024 to 4.8% in 2025 and further decline to 4.2% in 2026, according to the International Monetary Fund’s October World Economic Outlook. Additionally, weak domestic demand is a headwind as retail sales fall due to declining consumer confidence. Structural issues persist, related to low wage growth and high youth unemployment that rose to 19% in August for those aged 16-24, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics.
Banks are faced with contracting loan growth that continues to pressure net interest margins and overall profitability. To shore up the sector, officials launched a $72 billion bank recapitalization plan earlier in the year to enhance capital buffers and stimulate growth by supporting more lending. This primarily benefits the largest state-owned institutions. The smaller, midtier banks in the lower half of our rankings are also struggling amid the slowing economy but have comparatively fewer resources to dedicate to growth initiatives.
An overall deterioration in China’s credit fundamentals prompted Fitch to downgrade the country’s sovereign rating in April to A from A+. As a rationale for the move, the agency cites “a continued weakening of China’s public finances and a rapidly rising public debt trajectory during the country’s economic transition.”
Additionally, “Sustained fiscal stimulus will be deployed to support growth, amid subdued domestic demand, rising tariffs, and deflationary pressures.” Fitch adds that “this support, along with a structural erosion in the revenue base, will likely keep fiscal deficits high.” Following this action, the agency downgraded China Development Bank, Agricultural Development Bank of China, and Export-Import Bank of China.
In May, Fitch upgraded China Minsheng Bank one notch to BBB-, citing the bank’s progress in expanding its franchise with market share gains in loans and deposits as well as its involvement with government initiatives to support micro and small enterprises. In June, Moody’s initiated coverage of the bank with a Baa3 rating. These developments helped the bank reach No. 17 in our rankings as a new entrant this year.
For Bank of Ningbo, S&P assigned a first-time rating of BBB, which helped the bank to move up three spots to No. 15. Bank of Beijing benefitted from a one-notch Fitch upgrade to BBB-, which the agency attributed to the “steady increase in its regional significance in recent years, as well as its close relationship with the Beijing municipal government,” which represents one of China’s most resilient economies. Consequently, Bank of Beijing cracks our ranking this year at No. 25.
Methodology
The scoring methodology for China’s Safest Banks follows what we used in our other Safest Banks rankings. A rating of AAA is assigned a score of 10 points and AA+ receives nine points, down to BBB- worth one point. BB+ is with -1 point, and so on. When a bank has only two ratings, an implied score for the third rating is calculated by taking the average of the other two scores and deducting one point. When a bank has only one rating, an implied score for the second rating is calculated by deducting one point from the actual rating, and an implied score for the third rating is calculated by deducting two points from the actual rating.
The world’s first, largest, and most expensive cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has slid below $92,000 (€79,000) a coin, wiping more than 25% off its value since it hit record highs above $126,000 (€108,700) last month.
The dramatic decline is almost a textbook example of what it looks like to enter a bear market phase. That’s an industry term for when an asset falls so sharply it resembles the downward claw swipe of a bear.
Within the past 24 hours alone, Bitcoin traded as low as $89,471 (€77,210) or almost 30% below its late October peak, with the market recovering slightly in early trading on Tuesday.
“Bitcoin is extending losses, trading at around $90k, shedding around 2%, fuelled by concerns about overvaluations in the tech sector and broader risk-off sentiment that is causing a ripple effect across global markets,” explained Victoria Scholar, head of investment at the Interactive investor.
Despite a blistering rally into early October, all of Bitcoin’s gains this year have been erased and it is now trading below where it started in January.
“Bitcoin has now turned negative for 2025…fears of an AI bubble and concerns about the market’s heavy dependence on a handful of tech giants have caused investors to dial back their exposure to speculative assets such as Bitcoin,” Scholar explained.
The fall comes despite the presence of a crypto-friendly president in the White House, a less enforcement-minded chair at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a new stablecoin — crypto tied to currency — legislation on the books.
The risks of a decentralised currency
Blockchain currencies such as Bitcoin are built on a digital ledger rather than a physical system tied to a central bank or government, and this ledger records every transaction across a large network of computers. Thousands of these machines or nodes hold copies of the ledger and update it together.
Transactions are grouped into “blocks” — hence “blockchain” — and checked using cryptography before being added to the chain in a permanent, tamper-resistant sequence. This design makes the system transparent and very hard to alter, because changing any record would mean rewriting the entire chain on most of the participating computers.
All of this means that investors who are already on edge due to wider market volatility are quick to dump volatile assets like Bitcoin at the first sign of bad news in order to reduce their exposure.
“There’s a general sense of nervousness that has captured the market mood lately and Bitcoin appears to be in the firing line… riskier non-yielding assets like Bitcoin look less attractive in a higher interest rate environment,” Scholar explained.
Bitcoin’s defenders, such as billionaire investor Michael Saylor, have nonetheless welcomed the drop. Some claim it will flush out wealthy investors who do not understand or appreciate Bitcoin’s culture of long-term commitment and active engagement.
“Volatility is a gift to the faithful. It scares away the tourist, it scares away the lazy, it scares away the people that are already conventionally rich that have all the money,” Saylor said in a statement following the recent numbers.
Saylor and other die-hard Bitcoin believers say that those who are willing to study the market, stay invested through volatility, and participate in the daily ebb and flow of trading should be the ones benefitting the most from it — and not the casual spectators.
Saylor’s Strategy Inc., formerly MicroStrategy, bought 8,178 additional coins of Bitcoin between 10-16 November 2025 at an average price of around $102,171 or €88,000 each, spending roughly $835.6 million (€721.15mn) in total.
A resolution opposing the Mercosur trade agreement is set to be voted on Tuesday in France in the parliamentary committee on European affairs at the National Assembly.
Facing growing domestic opposition, French President Emmanuel Macron has limited room for manoeuvre when it comes to the Mercosur trade agreement, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, and Brussels wants to sign before the end of the year.
The resolution, signed by 103 French MPs, calls on the French government to refer the matter to the EU Court of Justice, arguing that the trade deal violates EU treaties.
According to the MPs, the European Commission’s decision not to submit the trade part of the agreement to national parliaments for approval is illegal.
It comes a week after Macron met with French farmers and gave them insurances he would not back the deal in Brussels.
The president “was extremely clear,” reported French Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard after the meeting on 12 November: “France cannot approve at this stage the draft agreement with the Mercosur countries because this draft agreement does not protect the interests of farmers.”
However, the French President softened his position after the Commission proposed attaching a strengthened safeguard clause to the agreement to control any disruptions to the internal market resulting from an increase in imports of products from Latin America.
The Mercosur agreement aims to create a free trade area across the Atlantic by eliminating tariffs. But France has opposed this deal for years citing the risk of competition distortion with European agricultural products and environmental concerns.
On a trip to Brazil on 7 November, Macron seemed to take a step toward the agreement.
“I am rather positive, but I remain vigilant because I also defend France’s interests,” he said before adding that France had been “heard by the [European] Commission” on several of its concerns.
A blocking minority against the deal is uncertain
If France were to oppose the agreement, it would need to move quickly to form a blocking minority in the Council, the institution that brings together the EU member states.
A blocking minority requires at least four member states representing 35% of the population. And it is not clear that he has the numbers.
So far, Hungary and Poland has said it opposed the deal, while Ireland, Austria and the Netherlands, say they wait for the text of the agreement to be fully translated before deciding. Translation work should be finalised on 11 December.
The key country is Italy and a change of heart from Rome could be game changer.
EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič travelled to Italy at the end of October and gave assurances that the deal will not harm Italian farmers.
Supporters of the agreement, led by Germany and Spain, argue that it is necessary in the face of Chinese competition in the region and the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on EU exports to the US.
But the issue is far from settled in the EU Parliament as well.
A group of 145 MEPs submitted a resolution last Friday also calling for a referral to the EU Court of Justice. If it were adopted by all MEPs at the end of this month, the referral would suspend the ratification process of the agreement.
Published on 17/11/2025 – 17:31 GMT+1 •Updated
17:34
The European Commission confirmed on Monday that US trade representative Jamieson Greer will meet EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič on 23 November in Brussels.
The meeting is expected to be tense as the US is pressuring the European Union to revise legislative action it considers restrictive for US companies and speed up the implementation of the deal agreed between President Donald Trump and Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen which would cut tariffs for all American industrial goods to zero, deploy massive investments in the US and commit to purchase US energy.
The Commission introduced a legislation in August, mostly lowering tariffs on US goods, to secure some relief on duties in cars and car parts, deemed crucial for the European industry. Still, the European Parliament and the Council have not adopted the legislation, testing Washington’s patience.
Greer and Šefčovič will meet the day before US secretary for commerce Howard Lutnick, a close ally of President Trump, attends a gathering of EU trade ministers next Monday in Brussels.
The “Turnberry agreement” concluded between the EU and the US in July includes that the EU will pay 15% tariffs on its exports to the US and will reduce to 0% its tariffs on most of US goods arriving in the EU.
Still, the US is pushing for more, pressuring on the EU to scrap its digital and climate regulations regarded as “non-tariff” barriers to trade by Washington.
EU lawmakers hope to amend EU-US trade deal
Brussels has insisted that it will not cede on its “sovereign” right to legislate, including big US tech.
On 13 November, the Commission launched an investigation into whether Google is unfairly deprioritising news in search listing. The probe was opened under the Digital Market Act (DMA), designed to track abuse of dominance in the tech market. The US has criticised European digital legislation for what they consider is an unfair tax on US Big Tech.
Washington’s offensive also targets the landmark EU corporate supply-chain legislation adopted last year which requires companies to check their supply chains for dodgy environmental and labour practices.
At the beginning of October, it sent a document to the Commission requesting that US companies be exempted from this legislation on corporate due diligence.
Tensions may increase further as Brussels insists it wants to see some of the terms of the July deal changed to reflect a more balanced relation. The Commission came under intense scrutiny from the European parliament over a deal that was considered detrimental to Europe’s interests and too favorable for the US.
EU lawmakers say they are ready to amend the terms of the EU-US deal.
The head of the European Parliament’s trade committee, German MEP Bernd Lange (S&D) has presented a draft report that calls for maintaining EU tariffs on US steel and aluminium steel since the US continue to impose theirs at a rate of 50%.
It also proposes that the tariff removal on US goods should apply for 18 months and only be extended based on a Commission’s report of their impact on the EU market.
The EU member states and the Parliament hope to agree on the legislation by the spring.
HomeSustainable FinanceIn conversation with Sohail Sultan, Chairman of Intercontinental Investment Bank
Commitment to sustainability – from financing green and blue bonds, to creating digital access for customers, to maintaining transparent governance for all stakeholders – can enable banks to create a culture that fosters long-term resilience, trust and value creation.
Joseph Giarraputo, Founder and Editorial Director of Global Finance, talks to Sohail Sultan, Chairman of Intercontinental Investment Bank (iib), about the bank’s wide-ranging sustainability initiatives and how they have shaped the institution’s identityand culture.
Committed to serving as a sustainability leader in the community, iib’s sustainability initiatives span multiple sectors. In healthcare, for example, the bank has run blood donation campaigns and supported oncology services. iib’s educational programsincludes partnering with the British Foreign Office to sponsor post-graduates for UK education as well as sponsoring technology upgrades and providing digital media solutions for corporate employees.
For the environment, iib has led numerous programs that preserve and protect natural spaces and reduce the carbon footprint, including mangrove restoration tobeach clean-ups and tree planting.
Financial inclusion is another key driver for iib. Across East Africa, the bank conducts grassroots campaigns on responsible saving and borrowing, while also providing access to credit. Digital-first products are part of the offering in a bid to make banking affordable and accessible in underserved communities.
iib also leverages its role as an intermediary to drive green and blue financing in emerging markets – for renewable energy and low-carbon infrastructure via green bonds, and ocean conservation and coastal resilience via blue bonds. To further connect international capital and embed climate responsibility in growth strategies, iib supports sustainable trade corridors across Africa, South Asia and the Caribbean.
Watch this video to learn more about what sustainability means to iib, and how the bank pursues this mission to show that social returns matter as much as financial ones.
The collapse of First Brands demonstrates some of the challenges of private credit, while its use continues to expand.
With standard cash-flow-based lending to corporate borrowers slowing, private equity firms and other private credit lenders are looking to collateral as a financing basis. That collateral, while typically consisting of assets like consumer and auto loans and aircraft leases, now extends to intellectual property rights as well as data center and energy infrastructure.
Consultancy Oliver Wyman estimates that the market for all asset-backed lending in the United States alone is $5.5 trillion, but private credit currently has only a 5% share. To tap the market, credit funds are increasingly partnering with banks. The firm notes that in the last two years, PE firms and major banks have signed at least 10 private credit partnerships, with half of these partnerships focused on opportunities in asset-backed financing (ABF).
That said, the bankruptcy in late September of US auto parts supplier First Brands Group is calling into question some of the assumptions made about private credit’s interest in ABF and indeed about the entire category of nonbank lending.
In fact, the expansion of ABF, based on a borrower’s cash flow from its assets rather than its operations, presents new opportunities and risks for borrowers, lenders, investors, and potentially the financial system. The trend reflects several underlying developments in corporate finance and the broader economy. With growth ebbing in many sectors, so-called “direct,” operating cash-flow lending to corporates, by both banks and credit funds sponsored by private equity firms and others, appears to have reached its peak.
As PE firm KKR put it in “Asset-Based Finance: Hiding in Plain Sight,” a July report, “though today’s addressable ABF market already feels quite large, ABF is where direct lending was a decade ago.”
New Kid On The Block
The latest category of ABF is increasingly taking the form of data centers and other infrastructure that serve as the foundation of the new economy.
Indeed, the boom in artificial intelligence, along with the growing “tokenization” of payments—the use of blockchain technology to settle transactions more quickly and securely—has led to soaring demand for data center capacity, and tech companies are borrowing from private credit funds to expand it despite ample cash coffers.
Meanwhile, the energy transition from fossil fuels to alternatives is driving new electrification projects throughout most of the world, with governments (except that of the US at present) and developers increasingly turning to private sources of capital to finance these projects.
The long-term nature and changing requirements of infrastructure projects, both for power and for digitalization, are widely considered to be better suited to the more flexible and “patient” type of lending offered by private funds in comparison with banks. As Standard & Poor’s noted in a report last June, “Because these early-stage technologies require large up-front capital investments and have long investment horizons, digital and energy transition infrastructure projects are often not a natural fit for traditional sources of funding.” Yet, banks remain involved, often through partnerships with PE firms.
Within this ABF segment, Standard & Poor’s expects global infrastructure funding and financing requirements for data centers to rise 86% to $173 billion by 2028 from $93 billion in 2025, and that global “cleantech” investments—including solar, wind, biomass, green hydrogen, and storage—will need $4 trillion by 2030.
For investors, typically insurance companies, public pension and sovereign wealth funds, ABF provides higher yields and greater diversification than direct lending does, as these assets may not be correlated with those in the public markets.
But as First Brands’ collapse shows, the category is not without risk, as lenders face a need to accurately estimate the residual value of such assets in the event borrowers default, forcing liquidations, and the more unfamiliar those assets become, the harder their residual values are to assess.
Even more traditional ABF deals pose that risk, as evident in First Brand’s failure. Investment bank Jefferies has a $715 million exposure to First Brands’ receivables through a factoring agreement with a fund sponsored by its asset management unit, and the bank says it’s having difficulty assessing its claim on those assets. Swiss bank UBS is also exposed to First Brand’s bankruptcy through its asset management unit, with more than $500 million at stake. Not surprisingly, the stocks of publicly traded PE firms Apollo, Blackstone, and KKR also fell more than twice as far as the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the five days following news reports of First Brands’ failure.
Testing The High
In fact, most deals, whether in the form of direct lending or ABF, have been done in a high-growth, low-interest-rate environment and so have yet to be tested by high rates, an economic downturn, or both. And to the extent that banks are involved, regulators warn that defaults could pose systemic financial risk.
Viral Acharya, NYU’s Stern School of Business
Viral Acharya, a professor of economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business and an adviser to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, told Global Finance that he worries that the Fed will backstop private credit borrowers because of the possibility of a resulting credit crunch and the risk that poses to the real economy.
“Private credit has not yet been stress-tested,” Acharya says. He worries that, rather than issue more equity in case of credit downgrades, private equity firms will draw down their bank facilities. In that scenario, he says his main concern is that “the risks will play out on banks’ balance sheets.”
That risk may be most acute in data centers, driven largely by compute demand for AI applications developed by big tech firms, or hyperscalers, as the technology has yet to produce significant revenue for them despite already huge investments. And Fitch Ratings in September warned that tariffs on steel and aluminum, sharply rising electricity costs, geopolitical tensions, the end of US federal support for wind and solar power, and a slowing economy all pose increased challenges for data center operators.
Meta Platform’s financing deal last June with PE firm Blue Owl and asset manager Pacific Investment Management is perhaps the most dramatic example of how private credit is financing the trend, as the firms will lead a $29 billion financing for Meta’s data center expansion in rural Louisiana, with all but $3 billion of that in debt. While Meta had $77.8 billion in cash on its balance sheet as of December 31, its capital spending totaled $39.2 billion, and that didn’t include principal payments on finance leases, which are not reflected there.
And the fact that the new data center debt financing also won’t be included on Meta’s balance sheet but will reside in a special purpose vehicle suggests the company is concerned about the risk involved. After all, off-balance-sheet (OBS) financing via special purpose vehicles is designed to securitize the borrowing to shift the risk of default to investors.
Lack of transparency is among the risks facing Jefferies and UBS at First Brands, as the company’s receivables financing was also done through off-balance sheet vehicles. Jefferies said that it was trying to determine if the receivables in question have been factored, or borrowed against, “more than once,” according to an October 10 report by CNBC.
OBS financing only increases the opacity that characterizes private credit in the first place. As the European Central Bank noted in a report in May of last year: “Private funds’ assets are valued less frequently and under more subjective model assumptions, which can conceal potential losses, underlying volatility and the correlation between the returns on private funds with other markets.”
The Bank for International Settlements, an international regulatory institution based in Basel, Switzerland, expressed more fundamental concerns about private credit in a report entitled “The Global Drivers of Private Credit,” published last March: “It remains to be seen whether the expected returns of private credit are commensurate with the risk-taking involved or whether lending standards deteriorate in the face of continued credit expansion—in particular because private credit, being a fairly young asset class, has not yet gone through a full credit cycle.”
The outcome of First Brands’ collapse is likely to shed some light on these issues.
Naveen Kumar Amar joined SS Innovations International, a developer of surgical robotic technologies, in September as CFO. Amar has been a financial leader with companies in a range of industries and most recently provided virtual CFO services to clients in the US, Canada, and the UK.
Global Finance: What is going to be your first big challenge as CFO of SS Innovations?
Naveen Kumar Amar: The first is to align our financial strategy with the scale of our global mission. SS Innovations is not just building a product; we are trying to increase access to surgical care worldwide by making robotic surgery more affordable and available to hospitals of all sizes. That requires disciplined capital allocation, building sustainable revenue streams, and ensuring our growth is balanced across markets. Regulatory milestones, including in the US, are part of that journey, but the broader goal is to strengthen and expand our financial framework to fully support global adoption.
GF: How do your more than 25 years of experience help you in your new role?
Amar: I’ve had the opportunity to build, scale, and transform organizations across sectors, from biotechnology and infrastructure to aviation and SaaS. This journey has given me a holistic understanding of how finance drives business strategy and long-term value creation. My experience in global financial governance, investor relations, and public company compliance enables me to bring structure, agility, and clarity to my new role.
As group CFO, my focus is on strengthening financial stewardship, promoting data-driven decision-making, and supporting sustainable growth. In a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, financial leadership must do more than manage performance; it must enable innovation, ensure transparency, and drive real impact for patients, shareholders, and society.
GF: Does this business pose specific challenges for a CFO?
Amar: Medical technology is a unique industry. The capital intensity, regulatory pathways, and long development timelines require a CFO to think not just in quarters but in multi-year horizons. You need a deep understanding of risk, compliance, and the ability to secure capital in ways that don’t slow innovation. For me, the role is about making sure SS Innovations can invest in innovation while maintaining financial resilience.
GF: What do you anticipate will take up most of your energy and time?
Amar: My energy will go into scaling the company in three ways. Global reach: supporting market expansion across regions, with models that fit the needs of hospitals in both advanced and emerging economies. Operational efficiency: ensuring our supply chain, manufacturing, and support systems can scale while keeping costs competitive. And investor and partner engagement: communicating our broader mission and the tangible progress we’re making so stakeholders see the impact beyond financial metrics. Ultimately, I want the finance function to be a strategic enabler of growth, helping the company live up to its promise of making advanced surgical care available to more people worldwide.
GF: SS Innovations has a headquarters in Florida and a strong presence in Gurugram, India. What are the challenges to keeping the company united?
Amar: Geography can create distance, but culture closes the gap. The challenge is making sure our teams—whether in Florida, Gurugram, or elsewhere—feel connected to the same mission. Communication is critical: not just top-down updates but fostering collaboration across functions and regions. I believe in a finance team that is embedded across operations, so people in different time zones and markets feel they are part of one company working toward one goal.
GF: What keeps you up at night?
Amar: It isn’t the spreadsheets or forecasts, it’s the responsibility I carry for our people, our culture, and the legacy we’re creating. That balance between ambition and responsibility can be challenging, but it’s also what makes this role so rewarding.
All critical strategic supplies can be used as a weapon against the European Union, Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič told Euronews in an exclusive interview.
The EU is dealing with the fallout from the Dutch government’s takeover of Nexperia, a chipmaker, citing national security. The move from the Hague has prompted a clash between Europe and China over who controls the company and its finished products, resulting in Chinese restrictions on chip exports.
Šefčovič, an experienced politician who oversees the all-important trade portfolio for the EU, said the episode highlights the complexities of the global supply chain as well as the risks associated with critical dependencies on third countries outside the EU.
“It very much underlines the lessons we’ve learned over the past years, and it doesn’t concern only China. Today, everything can be weaponised,” Šefčovič told Euronews. For Europe, he argued, “it started with [Russian] gas, then it continued with critical raw materials and high and low-end chips. It can all be weaponised.”
Šefčovič has been in contact with Chinese and Dutch authorities since the spat started more than a month ago. The Dutch government took control of Nexperia on September 30, fearing that the company would be dismantled and relocated to China. The Dutch authorities remain worried that the move could also involve a transfer of sensitive technology.
The Chinese responded by blocking chip exports, triggering concerns in Europe and around the world about a potential global shortage of automotive chips.
The impasse eased on 30 October following a meeting between the Chinese and the United States in South Korea, where both sides agreed to a truce in their bilateral trade dispute.
“China is taking appropriate measures to ensure trade from Nexperia’s facilities in China resumes, so that production of crucial chips can flow to the rest of the world,” a White House statement read.
Šefčovič suggested that the partial restoration of exports points to the start of a resolution to the standoff, but reiterated that the debacle was a warning of the urgent need to diversify.
“We are getting information from the car manufacturers to the spare parts producers that they are getting these chips,” he told Euronews.
“But we are only at the beginning of resolving this problem, so we will continue to talk with our Dutch colleagues and Chinese authorities.”
Vincent Karremans, the Dutch minister at the centre of the storm with Beijing, said in an interview that he would do it all again in the same manner and signalled that the episode is a warning of the large dependencies Europe has built over the years.
EU preparing new doctrine on economic security
The Nexperia saga is the latest incident between China and the EU over the supply of strategic components used across industries from cars to defence.
It also highlights how these materials are becoming a political tool for exerting economic pressure. After weeks of tensions that have impacted the European industry, the EU has secured a deal with China to ease restrictions on some rare-earth exports.
The Commission is working on a plan due to be presented next month that addresses some of these weaknesses. Šefčovič said the global competition to secure rare earths, critical components, and a stable supply chain required a unified approach.
“We have to work a little bit more like Japan, where they’re stockpiling some of the critical raw materials, some of that critical technologies and critical chips”, said Šefčovič.
“I think this would be one of the lessons which we want to bring in the new economic security doctrine, which we’ll be presenting before the end of the year.”
The EU has been actively pursuing a policy of de-risking, but not de-coupling from China, which would keep the door open to trade while applying safeguards in key areas deemed strategic for the EU and closing loopholes into the single market.
“Economic security and effective export controls would work only if they’re applied in harmony as homogeneous across the EU,” Šefčovič said.
“Those who want to abuse the system will always find a weak spot to penetrate the European market – and then put the whole European economy in jeopardy,” he concluded.
Africa’s largest country offers opportunity for investors willing to navigate heavy bureaucracy and an unpredictable business environment.
In July, Baladna, a Qatari firm famous for raising cows in the desert, signed a $500 million deal with Algeria’s National Investment Fund to launch the first phase of a $3.5 billion agro-industrial project in the Adrar region. Spanning 117,000 hectares and housing 270,000 cows, the mega-farm aims to cover half of Algeria’s demand for powdered milk and create 5,000 jobs.
The landmark project, held 51% by Baladna and 49% by Algeria’s Ministry of Agriculture, perfectly embodies what Algiers wants: to boost local production with the help of foreign partners while retaining substantial government control over the economy.
With a population exceeding 46 million and roughly a million new births every year, Algeria is one of Africa’s biggest consumer markets—and Africa’s largest country by land area. Investors looking to enter can count on cheap labor, relatively high purchasing power compared to the rest of the continent, low energy costs thanks to state subsidies, and limited competition.
“Just go to any Algerian supermarket and check how many brands of yogurt you will find—there is maybe three,” says Kamel Haddar, an Algerian serial entrepreneur. “In Morocco or Egypt there are 10 times more. So, you’ve got a big market, little competition, low costs … what more do you want? It’s basically like an open bar.”
Over the past decades however, Algeria has struggled to attract overseas capital. A civil war in the 1990s and the restrictive 49/51 ownership law introduced in 2009, which forced foreign investors to take on a local majority partner, have kept many potential investors reluctant to take a chance.
The ownership law was repealed in 2020 (except in “strategic” sectors like hydrocarbon, mining, large transportation infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, and defense) and the government has pledged to open the economy, but FDI remains lower than the authorities might have hoped. According to the International Monetary Fund, inward FDI has averaged just 0.4% of GDP over the past five years.
That leaves Algeria’s economy largely state-led and dependent on hydrocarbons, which made up 92% of exports and half of fiscal revenues last year. Following global energy prices, growth is expected to slow slightly to 3.4% in 2025, down from 3.6% in 2024. State-owned enterprises control key parts of the economy while a sprawling system of subsidies, including for basic goods, housing, and pensions, absorbs the bulk of public spending.
Algeria knows its model is unsustainable. Falling energy prices and mounting fiscal pressure have pushed the authorities to accelerate reforms to diversify the economy and encourage private-sector growth. In 2023, new land and procurement laws were enacted to improve business clarity while a one-stop digital platform for investors that provides key information on how to invest in some sectors and lists the investment incentives, tax exemptions, etc. was launched.
Algiers has set itself ambitious goals: to boost non-hydrocarbon exports to $29 billion by 2030 from $5.1 billion in 2023 while introducing new logistics platforms and simplified trade procedures. The government aims for 30% to 40% of electricity to come from renewables by then as well.
Despite still being subject to the 49/51 law, the energy sector remains the most attractive to foreign investors. US oil majors ExxonMobil and Chevron are reportedly finalizing a major agreement with the Algerian national oil company, Sonatrach, to explore shale gas, potentially unlocking the world’s third largest reserves.
Beyond hydrocarbons, the government is pushing for diversification in agriculture and manufacturing under a “Made in Algeria” policy.
“Everything related to imports is complicated because the state wants to favor products made in Algeria, but for those who produce locally, there are big margins and strong growth ahead,” Haddar says. International names including Coca Cola, Nestlé, Heinz, Pepsico, Danone, Carrefour, Orange, and car makers Renault, Peugeot, and Volkswagen have already established local operations.
“Companies have been setting up for the past 20 years, but it is still not enough,” says Rachid Sekak, financial consultant and former CEO of HSBC Algeria. “The potential for import substitution is everywhere. In terms of consumer goods, a lot remains to be done in sectors like food, agriculture, automobiles.”
Vital Statistics
Location: North Africa
Neighbors: Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya, Western Sahara
Capital City: Algiers
Population (2024): 46.8 million
Official Languages: Arabic and Tamazight (French is also widely spoken)
GDP per capita (2024): $5,631
GDP growth (2024): 4%
Unemployment Rate (2024): 11.4%
Currency: Algerian dinar
Investment promotion agency: Algerian Agency for Investment Promotion (AAPI)
Corruption perception index rank (2024): 107th
Pros
Dynamic demography
Reform plans
Tax incentives and subsidies
Proximity to Middle East and African markets
Little corruption
Big opportunities in all sectors of the economy
Cons
Heavy state bureaucracy and public sector
High level of corruption and arbitrary decisions
Economy heavily dependent on energy and exposed to global commodity prices
Exposure to climate risks
Large informal sector
Black market exchange rate
Low level of advancement in digitalization
On FATF gray list since October 2024
Sources: World Bank, IMF, Transparency International
While Europe remains Algeria’s primary trading partner, ties with the Global South are expanding. China is now Algeria’s largest supplier, accounting for 22.9% of imports, and Chinese companies including Huawei, Sinopec, and ZTE have opened shop.
Turkey is another major partner, with more than $21 billion invested across 600 projects. Over 1,700 Turkish companies currently operate in Algeria and bilateral trade between the two countries is expected to reach $10 billion this year. To support the growing business ties, Ziraat Bankasi became the first Turkish bank licensed to operate in Algeria early this year.
Algiers has also joined the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA); it hosted the Intra-African Trade Fair in September, signalling growing regional ambitions south of the Sahara.
Financial Sector Reform
There is also reform momentum in the financial sector. The establishment of a Startup Ministry and a state-backed venture capital fund in 2020 marked a turning point. The government aims to welcome 20,000 startups by 2030.
“It’s a fast-growing market that is supported by both the state and by the private sector,” Haddar observes, “but we are still at the beginning. The next step will be for international VCs to set up a presence.”
A new Monetary and Banking Law passed in 2023 smooths the way for development of Islamic and digital financial products. Islamic finance currently represents about 3% of total assets, but new entrants including Tunisia’s Bank Zitouna, owned since 2018 by Qatar’s Majda Holding, are expected soon. On the digital front, opportunities are opening for fintechs and online banks, but digital banks face strict conditions. They can only offer payment services, must have a 30% local banking partner, and must require minimum capital of 10 billion dinars ($75 million).
Despite the reforms, public banks still dominate the market, holding about 85% of deposits. Privatization through IPOs has begun, with listings of Banque du Développement Local in March and Crédit Populaire d’Algérie last year, but the process remains mostly symbolic.
“It doesn’t change things fundamentally,” Sekak argues, “because newcomers don’t have the capacity to bend board meeting decisions. It has, however, had important effects on transparency and disclosure.”
From a foreign investor’s perspective, while Algeria seems willing to enact some reforms, deep-rooted barriers persist.
“The potential is huge,” says a foreign investor who has supported multi-million projects in Algeria for over 10 years but is now exiting the market. “There are very few countries like this left in the world. The market is practically virgin and there is a lot of money. But unfortunately, the authorities are not open to business. Big companies have opened—car factories, for example—but sometimes the authorities decide to ban imports of certain raw materials or some spare parts, and that makes local production impossible.”
Investing in Algeria can yield substantial returns, but there are risks. The market is unpredictable, with the authorities often making unliteral decisions that can reshape entire industries overnight.
“Working in Algeria means you must be able go to sleep with one law and wake up with a different one,” the investor says. “So you enter a market that has a certain legal framework, and then things change completely. It’s a big problem you must factor in.”
The IMF echoes these concerns, pointing to a lack of clarity in bidding processes. In its latest review, it suggests, “Addressing issues related to transparency, institutional independence, and enforcement of rules could help improve public trust and institutional effectiveness. Ensuring that legal and regulatory frameworks are applied fairly and efficiently would also support private-sector development, investment, and overall economic resilience.”
Another concern is Algeria’s vast informal sector and cash economy: one of the reasons it landed on the global Financial Action Task Force’s Gray List last year.
While Algeria’s economic potential is significant, its institutions have yet to catch up with its ambitions. The country’s greatest challenge is not capital or capacity, but governance. Until transparency improves, the state further loosens its grip on the economy, and the rules of the road become more stable, investors will continue to face uncertainty.
European markets opened significantly lower on Friday, following a retreat in Asian shares in the morning and Wall Street’s tumble on Thursday, as investors reassessed the outlook for interest-rate cuts and questioned the lofty valuations of leading US technology and AI stocks.
“Markets are down across the board as investors fret about cracks in the narrative that’s driven the mother of all tech rallies over the past few years,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell. The key concern is “about rich equity valuations and how billions of dollars are being spent on AI just at a time when the jobs market is looking fragile”, he added.
In Europe, sentiment was gloomy on Friday morning as UK government bond yields jumped following reports that Chancellor Rachel Reeves has abandoned plans to raise income tax rates in this month’s Autumn Budget. The ten-year gilt yield climbed above 4.54% before easing slightly. If confirmed, the chancellor’s move — first reported by the Financial Times — would leave a shortfall in the public finances.
London equities weakened, with bank shares among the worst performers on the FTSE 100 as investors digested the prospect of a tighter fiscal backdrop.
By around 11:00 CET, the FTSE 100 was down more than 1.1%, the European benchmark Stoxx 600 had lost nearly 1%, the DAX in Frankfurt dipped more than 0.7% and the CAC 40 in Paris fell nearly 0.7%. The Madrid and Milan indexes were down 1.2% and 1% respectively.
“Despite the doom and gloom, the scale of the market pullback wasn’t severe enough to suggest widespread panic,” said Coatsworth, adding that “a 1% decline in the FTSE 100 is not out of the ordinary for a one-day movement when markets are feeling grumpy”.
On the corporate front, luxury group Richemont was among the best performers, soaring 7.5% after beating forecast first-half results. Siemens Energy jumped more than 10% after the company raised its targets for the 2028 financial year. In other news, French Ubisoft delayed its financial report for the past six months; trading in its shares was suspended after an earlier drop of more than 8%.
Across the Atlantic, Wall Street endured one of its weakest sessions since April on Thursday, with the S&P 500 sliding 1.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 1.7% from its record high set a day earlier. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 2.3%.
Shares in major AI-linked companies came under heavy selling pressure, with Nvidia down 3.6%, Super Micro Computer off 7.4%, Palantir falling 6.5% and Broadcom losing 4.3%. Oracles lost more than 4%.
The sector’s extraordinary gains this year have prompted comparisons with the dot-com boom, fuelling doubts about how much further prices can rise.
Expectations for a further US interest-rate cut in December have also diminished, with market pricing now suggesting only a marginal chance the Federal Reserve will move again this year.
Asian markets mirrored the downbeat tone as fresh data showed China’s factory output grew at its slowest pace in 14 months in October, rising 4.9% year on year — down from 6.5% in September and missing expectations. Fixed-asset investment also weakened, dragged down by ongoing softness in the property sector.
South Korea’s Kospi led regional losses, tumbling 3.8% amid heavy selling of technology shares. Samsung Electronics dropped 5.5% and SK Hynix slid 8.5%, while LG Energy Solution lost 4.4%. Taiwan’s Taiex declined 1.8%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed nearly 1.8%, reversing Thursday’s gains, with SoftBank Group plunging 6.6%. In China, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 2% and the Shanghai Composite slipped 1%.
Meanwhile, oil prices strengthened. Brent crude rose nearly 1.6% to $63.99 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate added 1.8% to $59.76. The dollar was slightly firmer at ¥154.55, while the euro traded at $1.1637.
PEMBROKE, Bermuda — Gold Reserve Ltd. (TSX.V: GRZ) (BSX: GRZ.BH) (OTCQX: GDRZF) (“Gold Reserve” or the “Company”) today provided an update on recent developments in its ongoing legal proceedings related to the Citgo sale process.
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The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware issued a decision today denying Gold Reserve’s motion to disqualify the Special Master overseeing the Citgo Sale Process, his advisors — the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP (“Weil”) and Evercore Inc. — as well as the District Court Judge. The Court also denied a similar motion filed by the Venezuela Parties. The Court also stated that it does not intend to rule on the Amber Energy bid before November 21, 2025. Copies of the Court’s written opinion and order will be posted here.
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Gold Reserve respectfully disagrees with the ruling and continues to believe that the sale process was plagued with significant conflicts of interest, including the $170 million in fees collected by the Special Master’s advisors from affiliates of Elliott and the 2020 bondholders involved in Elliott’s bid, as revealed through the Company’s limited court-authorized discovery. These concerns were referenced in the Court’s written opinion, which noted:
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“One lawyer, Jeffrey Saferstein, has represented Elliott and also Apollo Global Management, a major investor in the Elliott Bid; prior to joining Weil, Saferstein worked at another law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, & Garrison, LLP, with Michael Turkel, now of Elliott Management…In discovery, the Movants obtained an email, showing that on the day before Topping Bids were due in the Sale Process, a frustrated Turkel called Saferstein, seeking some level of assistance with a bid Elliott planned to make…Saferstein thereafter wrote to his Weil colleagues working with the Special Master to intone: ‘I [would] hate for them [i.e., Elliott] to not want to work with us.’
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The Company maintains its view that these and other conflicts undermine the fairness and integrity of the Citgo sale process and intends to seek all appropriate appellate remedies.
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Separately, in Gold Reserve’s pending action in the Delaware Court of Chancery against Rusoro Mining Ltd. for breach of the parties’ Consortium Agreement, the court declined to expedite Gold Reserve’s motion for a preliminary injunction. The Court of Chancery determined that it would await developments in the Citgo sale process before addressing this.
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A complete description of the Delaware sale proceedings can be found on the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system in Crystallex International Corporation v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, 1:17-mc-00151-LPS (D. Del.) and its related proceedings.
This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable U.S. federal securities laws and “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian provincial and territorial securities laws and state Gold Reserve’s and its management’s intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations or predictions for the future. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management at this time, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. They are frequently characterized by words such as “anticipates”, “plan”, “continue”, “expect”, “project”, “intend”, “believe”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “may”, “will”, “potential”, “proposed”, “positioned” and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions “may” or “will” occur. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements relating to any bid submitted by the Company for the purchase of the PDVH shares (the “Bid”).
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We caution that such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other risks that may cause the actual events, outcomes or results of Gold Reserve to be materially different from our estimated outcomes, results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: the discretion of the Special Master to consider the Bid, to enter into any discussions or negotiation with respect thereto; the Special Master may not recommend the Bid in the Final Recommendation; an objection to the Bid may be upheld by the Court; the Bid will not be approved by the Court as the “Final Recommend Bid” under the Bidding Procedures, and if approved by the Court may not close, including as a result of not obtaining necessary regulatory approvals, including but not limited to any necessary approvals from the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”), the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission or the TSX Venture Exchange; failure of the Company or any other party to obtain sufficient equity and/or debt financing or any required shareholders approvals for, or satisfy other conditions to effect, any transaction resulting from the Bid; that the Company may forfeit any cash amount deposit made due to failing to complete the Bid or otherwise; that the making of the Bid or any transaction resulting therefrom may involve unexpected costs, liabilities or delays; that, prior to or as a result of the completion of any transaction contemplated by the Bid, the business of the Company may experience significant disruptions due to transaction related uncertainty, industry conditions, tariff wars or other factors; the ability to enforce the writ of attachment granted to the Company; the timing set for various reports and/or other matters with respect to the Sale Process may not be met; the ability of the Company to otherwise participate in the Sale Process (and related costs associated therewith
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; the amount, if any, of proceeds associated with the Sale Process; the competing claims of other creditors of Venezuela, PDVSA and the Company, including any interest on such creditors’ judgements and any priority afforded thereto; uncertainties with respect to possible settlements between Venezuela and other creditors and the impact of any such settlements on the amount of funds that may be available under the Sale Process; and the proceeds from the Sale Process may not be sufficient to satisfy the amounts outstanding under the Company’s September 2014 arbitral award and/or corresponding November 15, 2015 U.S. judgement in full; and the ramifications of bankruptcy with respect to the Sale Process and/or the Company’s claims, including as a result of the priority of other claims. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company’s forward-looking statements. For a more detailed discussion of the risk factors affecting the Company’s business, see the Company’s Management’s Discussion & Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2024 and other reports that have been filed on SEDAR+ and are available under the Company’s profile at www.sedarplus.ca.
Published on 13/11/2025 – 18:01 GMT+1 •Updated
18:04
The EU 27 economy ministers reached an agreement on Thursday to terminate the €150 customs duty exemption that currently applies to parcels coming from non-EU countries.
The decision will impact Chinese e-commerce platforms, such as Shein and Temu, which are flooding the EU market with small parcels. In France, Shein is also at the centre of a scandal, facing legal proceedings over the sale of child-like sex dolls on its platform.
“This is a defining moment,” European Commissioner for Trade Maroš Šefčovič said after the meeting, adding that the move “sends a strong signal that Europe is serious about fair competition and defending the interests of its businesses.”
A whopping 4.6 billion parcels were imported in the EU in 2024, EU Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis recalled on Thursday.
He warned that the trend is “dramatically increasing,” adding that 91% of small parcels come from China.
The decision to remove the exemption on small parcels is part of a broader overhaul of EU customs rules which could take time.
Urgency to act as Chinese goods flood market
The 27 member states are expected to meet again in December to agree on a temporary system that would enable the implementation of the measures.
EU trade commissioner Šefčovič said that the EU will be ready to move as early as 2026.
“Ending the exemption will close long-standing loopholes that have been routinely exploited to avoid customs duties,” a European diplomat said.
The agreement reached Thursday by EU ministers means customs duties will be payable from “the first euro” on all goods entering the EU, like value-added tax, according to the same official.
The latest moves signal the tide may be turning for Chinese e-commerce platforms that have been moving aggressively into the European market.
A €2 levy for small packages proposed in July by the European Commission is already being discussed by the 27 member states.
Individual member states are also introducing national measures. Italy is working on a tax to defend its fashion industry from a wave of cheaper Chinese orders which national producers cannot compete with on pricing.
“We are satisfied with the measure introducing a tax on small parcels from non-EU countries, a phenomenon that is destroying retail trade,” Italian Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti said on Thursday.
EuroCommerce, which represents EU retailers in Brussels, first sounded the alarm over the increase in orders coming from Chinese platforms last month and called on European authorities to act in a coordinated manner.
“A swift, harmonised EU solution is essential, as such proposals risk fragmentation and undermining the level playing field,” Christel Delberghe, director general of EuroCommerce, said.
At Sibos 2025, Gilly Wright, Global Finance’s Technology and Transaction Banking editor, interviews Isaac Kamuta, Group Head, Payments, Cash Management & Client Access at Ecobank, about its solutions for helping clients collect and make payments and manage liquidity, supporting their growth objectives within and across Africa.
Ecobank, which has consistently achieved recognition for excellence in cash management and the maintenance of client trust, provides a seamless unified network that simplifies operations for clients managing payments, collections, and liquidity across multiple markets in 33 African countries, as well as several locations outside the continent.
In the interview, Kamuta cites the bank’s significant investments, not just in technology but in providing technology-oriented to solutions for clients. “We have been able to build very good solutions that have served our clients well, especially when it comes to moving value across multiple countries,” he says.
For example, Ecobank’s Pan-African solutions, such as RapidCollect and virtual accounts, help businesses overcome payment challenges and capitalize on opportunities within the African Continental Free Trade Area, the world’s largest free trade area by number of countries.
“If you are a treasurer of a business that is present or doing business in multiple countries, you want a single connection to those countries directly, without having to go through third parties, which introduces friction and increases the cost of doing business.”
Isaac Kamuta, Group Head, Payments, Cash Management & Client Access at Ecobank
Watch the interview to find out more about how Ecobank’s focus on Pan-African payments helps clients maintain their competitive edge and achieve growth within the continent and beyond.
