Obviously, the devasting Pol Pot regime plunged Cambodia into genocide, armed conflict, destruction and isolation during the dark period between 1970s to 1990s. This tragic history left Cambodia in social, economic and political ruins. As a war-torn country, despite these historical scars of the catastrophic decades, the government has implemented various policies and initiatives to reach national reconciliation and unity as well as to build peace and political stability, leading to economic growth and enhancement of living standards for its people. Prior to the pandemic, from 1998 to 2019, Cambodia’s economic growth remarkably flourished leading to the attainment of lower middle-income status in 2015, with the impressive average annual increase rate of 7.7 percent, making Cambodia one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
Having seen the immense importance of regional integration and cooperation as the pivotal catalysts for national security, peace and sustainable development, Cambodia has actively engaged in the regional and international organizations such as the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), the United Nations (UN) and other not mentioned international organizations and blocs. Noticeably, Cambodian foreign policy puts strong emphasis on the crucial role of ASEAN. Phnom Penh recognizes the key role of this regional bloc in safeguarding stability and peace in Southeast Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific region. Since its accession to ASEAN in 1999, Cambodia has assumed the role of ASEAN chair on three occasions—2002, 2012, and 2022, fostering regional cooperation, integration and solidarity for the sake of regional peace, stability and development.
Additionally, since its membership in 2004, Cambodia has played a vital role in ASEM through its active participation in various discussions and initiatives, promoting cooperation and understanding between Asia and Europe. Noticeably, in spite of the pandemic, Cambodia successfully hosted the virtual 13th Asia-Europe Meeting Summit in 2021, offering the platform for leaders from over 50 countries to have fruitful dialogues in order to explore ways and means to tackle regional and global issues for collective interest.
More importantly, one of the main aspirations of Cambodia’s foreign policy is to establish international peace on the basis of the principles of equality and rights for all people. In this sense, since 2006, notwithstanding the limited resources, Cambodia has emerged as an active participant in peacekeeping missions under the UN’s umbrella by transforming itself from being a host country of UNTAC (United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia) to a country that has contributed blue berets to 12 missions involving nine countries. These missions have involved 9,205 personnel, including 726 female peacekeepers. In fact, sending Cambodian peacekeeping forces to join the peace-keeping endeavors under the UN framework is also one of the priorities stipulated in Cambodia’s defence white paper 2022 for strengthening Cambodian armed forces’ capacities in the areas of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
Furthermore, to promote the gender equality and women empowerment, Cambodia has acknowledged the women’s ability of performing tasks as capable as men. This acknowledgement has been concretely evidenced by their constant accomplishments. In this regard, Cambodia has enlarged the number of its female troops dispatched to all levels of UN peacekeeping operations. Consequently, for its participation in UN peacekeeping operations, the UN rated Cambodia third in ASEAN (after Indonesia and Malaysia) and 28th out of 122 countries in the globe. In terms of deploying female peacekeepers overseas, Cambodia was placed 13th in the world and second among ASEAN nations, behind Indonesia. This gender equality promotion is also in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
More essentially, Cambodia’s essential role in the UN peace keeping mission was also highly praised by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during his discussion with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet on the sidelines of the 78th UN General Assembly (UNGA). Additionally, while receiving the courtesy visit from the UN representative in Cambodia last year, Cambodian Foreign Minister Sok Chenda Sophea ensured the Cambodia’s resolute commitment to its continued support to the UN peacekeeping missions by stressing the country’s firm dedication to global peace and security. The top diplomat also revealed the Kingdom’s ambitious plan to expand its peacekeeping operations to other UN frameworks.
Noticeably, the world’s political and socio-economic landscapes is uncertain and unpredictable due to its rapid evolution. On top of this, the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war, the escalated crisis in the Middle-East, geopolitical rivalry among the superpowers just to name a few has considerably affected the regional and global cooperation, security, and stability. Bitterly experienced falling victim of the geopolitical competition during the Cold War, Cambodia intends to maintain its current course of “independent and neutral foreign policy, grounded in the rule of law, equal mutual respect and adherence to the principles of the UN Charter” in order to further foster its domestic interests, nourish current friendships, and build more harmonious relationships.
Like other small states, Cambodia places utmost significance on peace and security for its survival. Hence, Cambodia vehemently opposed an aggression against other sovereign states, meddling in their domestic affairs, and the threat or use of force in international relations. Through bilateral, regional, and international frameworks, Cambodia will proactively pursue the possibility of strengthening and broadening close cooperation with other countries in order to support global peace, security, stability, sustainable development, and prosperity that can be shared and cherished by all.
As such, Cambodia is firmly dedicated to promoting peacekeeping operations and partaking in this righteous endeavor. Undoubtedly, as one of the regional outstanding contributors to the UN peacekeeping missions, Cambodia has chosen to run for membership in the Organizational Committee of the Peacebuilding Commission for the years 2025–2026 aimed at further contributing to this noble humanitarian task, eventually benefiting the humanity as a whole.
Obviously, this membership will enable Cambodia to play more roles and responsibilities in advocating the global peace, security, and stability, all of which are the essential prerequisites for sustainable development. Most significantly, being part of this body will also provide Cambodia with a platform to share its experiences, best practices and lessons learned in the process of peacebuilding, national reconciliation, and socio-economic development to other warring nations which are eager to taste the blissful flavors of peace and development like the rest of the world.
Global Finance’s rankings expand from 50 to 100 of the safest banks.
The global banking sector faces major challenges as economies worldwide navigate volatility driven by US tariff policies and intensifying competition that is reshaping bank strategies and business models. Against this backdrop, our 2025 rankings expand the World’s Safest Banks from the Global Top 50 to the Top 100, offering a broader view of the sector and deeper insight into its resilience.
Washington’s evolving tariff policy and the resulting disruptions to global trade and supply chains have fractured economic ties among the largest US trading partners, contributing to upward pressure on inflation and to diminished global growth. These represent persistent issues that are likely to grow as the full effects of tariffs take hold. According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the October forecast for growth in global trade volume in 2025 rose to 2.4% from 0.9% in August, mainly due to the front-loading of imports into the US ahead of announced tariffs. The WTO outlook for 2026, however, is more muted, with trade volume growth falling to 0.5%.
The September economic outlook of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) projects global GDP growth to decrease from 3.3% in 2024 to 3.2% in 2025, and to 2.9% in 2026. Regionally, growth in the US economy is forecast to fall from 2.8% in 2024 to 1.8% in 2025 and 1.5% in 2026 while euro area GDP growth is expected to be 1.2% in 2025, declining to 1% in 2026. China is facing a possible contraction from 4.9% GDP in 2025 to 4.4% in 2026.
As this year has unfolded, many of the world’s central banks are firmly in an easing cycle, with broadening global rate cuts to spur their respective economies. The institutions at the forefront in providing the most effective service offerings continue to invest in technology to aggressively transform their business models beyond their current digital platforms and online capabilities. Increasingly these banks are utilizing generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to accelerate this transformation by leveraging data analytics to quickly identify new solutions to drive growth and uncover cost efficiencies.
The Global Top 100
Frequently, changes in a country’s sovereign rating provide the catalyst for year-over-year shifts in our annual rankings. Notably, Moody’s downgraded France to Aa3 from Aa2, citing the country’s fiscal challenges with deficit reduction and weakening public finances. Bank downgrades followed, given reduced government-support uplift to the ratings under the agency’s methodology. Consequently, Caisse des Depots et Consignations fell to No. 29 from No. 11, SFIL dropped to No. 47 from No. 19, BNP Paribas fell to No. 60 from No. 48, Credit Agricole fell to No. 61 from No. 49, and Banque Federative du Credit Mutuel fell to No. 62 from No. 50.
Similarly, following Fitch’s April 2025 downgrade of China due to weakening public finances, follow-on downgrades kept Chinese banks lower in the rankings, with China Development Bank at No. 73, Agricultural Development Bank of China at No. 75, and Export-Import Bank of China at No. 76.
On a positive note, Saudi Arabia benefited from a Moody’s upgrade to Aa3 from A1 in November 2024, with the agency citing progress on economic diversification. S&P recognized the country’s sustained socioeconomic and capital market reforms with a March 2025 upgrade to A+ from A. These moves allowed two banks to enter the top 100: Saudi National Bank at No. 99 and Al Rajhi Bank at No. 100.
In Canada, National Bank of Canada’s progress in growing its franchise to expand beyond its home market of Quebec prompted an S&P upgrade that moved the bank to No. 44 from last year’s No. 68. At Toronto-Dominion Bank, anti-money laundering deficiencies prompted both Moody’s and S&P to downgrade the bank, resulting in a drop in its ranking to No. 41 from No. 21 last year.
Methodology
Our rankings apply to the world’s largest 500 banks by asset size and are calculated based on long-term foreign currency ratings issued by Fitch Ratings, Standard & Poor’s, and Moody’s Investors Service. Under our methodology, we require a rating from at least two of these agencies. It’s important to note that the largest 500 banks with at least two agency ratings are sourced from a universe of approximately 1,000 banks, as not all banks hold two agency ratings. Where possible, ratings on holding companies rather than operating companies are used; and banks that are wholly owned by other banks are omitted. Within each rank set, banks are organized according to asset size, based on data for the most recent annual reporting period provided by Fitch Solutions and Moody’s. Ratings are reproduced with permission from the three rating agencies, with all rights reserved. A ranking is not a recommendation to purchase, sell, or hold a security; and it does not comment on market price or suitability for a particular investor. All ratings in the tables were valid as of August 15, 2025.
Strengthened by recent profits, global banks enter a new phase defined by falling rates, political volatility, and the disruptive promise of AI.
Banks’ most basic job is to be a safe haven in a turbulent world. That turbulence is increasing.
Even so, the industry enters this uncertain period from a position of relative strength, buoyed by recent profits and a growing belief that artificial intelligence could unlock the next wave of efficiency and growth. Yet, this strong foundation now faces significant headwinds.
In recent years, rising interest rates have delivered wider margins and fatter profits for banks across much of the world. Now, however, rates are falling again. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is upending trade relations in the world’s largest economy, spreading uncertainty that could constrain credit appetite everywhere. In addition, China, the world’s second-largest economy, is stuck in a cycle of overproduction and underconsumption that its leaders appear unable to address.
Compounding these external challenges, nonbank lenders continue to seize market share—from corporate buyouts to family mortgages. Meanwhile, nonbank payment systems—ranging from stablecoins to sovereign digital currencies—provide alternatives to traditional interbank networks.
“We are living in a multi-shock world,” says Sean Viergutz, banking and capital markets advisory leader at consultant PwC.
Alexandra Mousavizadeh, co-founder of Evident
Beyond these outside disruptions, the biggest shock of all is coming from within: AI. Bank managers are now rushing to apply Silicon Valley’s new magic to their back offices and, to some extent, client relations, showing an intensity that overshadows external concerns.
“AI is top of mind in almost every meeting out there,” says Amit Vora, Head of Sales – Regional Banks and Asset Managers, Crisil Intergal IQ, a division of Crisil (majority owned by S&P Global). “It’s part of the banking vocabulary more than risk and credit today.”
Rewards in the AI race are still some way off, cautions Alexandra Mousavizadeh, co-founder of Evident, a London-based consultant that tracks AI adoption in financial services. Revolutionary “agentic AI” systems are expected to come online only in 2028, though the tools are still evolving. Nevertheless, banks have little choice but to push forward, drawn by AI’s potential to cut costs and sharpen competitiveness. This transformative impact is driving major organizational changes.
“Once this hits the bottom line, the gap between leaders and laggards will become very clear,” Mousavizadeh forecasts.
Profits Up, Rates And Regs Down
Luckily, the last few years have left the industry with solid buffers against multiple shocks. Revenue at the 25 largest global banks jumped 9% in 2024. The biggest banks in the US and Europe—JPMorgan Chase and HSBC, respectively—both raked in record profits. And Europe has seen a banking renaissance since post-pandemic inflation forced the European Central Bank to raise rates after a decade of near-zero rates.
“We’ve been busy upgrading banks for years,” says Giles Edwards, sector lead for European financial institutions at S&P Global Ratings. “Things look OK from a fundamental credit perspective.”
The ECB has slashed its key rate in half to 2% since mid-2024. Banks can live with that, says Johann Scholtz, European bank analyst at Morningstar.
“There will be some pressure on net interest income, but I don’t think margins will collapse,” he predicts. The US Federal Reserve has cut rates by 125 basis points to 4.25% since August 2024. More rate cuts are expected this year.
Japan, the fourth-largest economy, is going the other way. The Bank of Japan shifted from negative rates to 0.5%. The economy returned to growth in 2024 after a recession. Markets expect the benchmark rate to reach 1% in 2026.
All of which is good news for banks, at least the big ones based in Tokyo, says Nana Otsuki, a senior fellow at Pictet Asset Management. “Broadly speaking, the banks are in good shape,” she says.
The global regulatory storm unleashed after the 2008 financial crisis is finally ebbing, if not reversing. European authorities are talking up “simplification” of oversight across industries. And the Trump administration is philosophically committed to deregulation, although specifics are rolling out more slowly than the industry might like.
“This could be the biggest period in regulatory change since the global financial crisis, but we need the fine print,”
Brendan Browne, Edwards’ counterpart for US banks at S&P Global
Writ large, governments have stopped being a major headwind—or headache—for bankers, for the moment. “There’s a certain optimism that we have turned the corner,” Vora says. “Banks can look away from regulatory concerns to internal projects that improve profitability.”
Growth Shaky But AI May Help
What’s not looking great for banks is the outlook for growth. On the positive side, the global economy is so far holding up better than expected in the face of Trump’s tariff onslaught.
“All signs point to a world economy that has generally withstood acute strains from multiple shocks,” Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said at the IMF’s annual meeting in October. But bank lending is concentrated in big corporations, which are more exposed to trade disruptions. In emerging markets, consumer credit is less developed and now faces competition from online neobanks.
“We are having a lot of conversations about finding better methods to deal with macroeconomic stress,” Vora says.
European financiers see “no real source of growth,” adds Morningstar’s Scholtz.
The US picture is more dynamic. Commercial bank credit climbed 5% from January to October, the Fed reports. But much, if not most, of that increase came from lending to private credit funds, whose opaque operations could pose as much risk as reward.
The dangers appeared in the recent bankruptcy of Texas-based auto parts maker First Brands. The company used billions in off-balance-sheet financing from private credit firms like BlackRock and Jefferies. This could signal more trouble ahead. Non-bank financial institutions(NBFIs) now make up about 10% of US banks’ loan books, notes S&P’s Browne.
“When something is growing that quickly, it’s going to raise some red flags, [with] questions about whether the banks understand it well enough,” he cautions.
The IMF added its own warning recently. “Banks’ growing exposures to NBFIs mean that adverse developments at these institutions could significantly affect banks’ capital ratios,” the multilateral watchdog found.
Even in China, the world’s most prodigious credit machine is sputtering, says Logan Wright, partner and head of China markets research at the Rhodium Group. State-owned banks there have long been obliged to support politically connected enterprises and roll over any loans that look shaky.
“China’s banks have been asked to weather the cost of quasi-fiscal lending for years,” Wright says. But Beijing’s anti-involution campaign, aimed at curbing industrial overproduction, has tapped the brakes on this process without exactly enforcing financial discipline. The result is a walking-wounded banking system, in sharp contrast to the burgeoning tech sector that has rekindled equity investors’ interest in China, Wright notes. Credit growth has hit historic lows. Banking profits fell last year and will likely fall again in 2025.
Systemic reform would put too many jobs at “zombie” companies at risk and dry up tax revenue for local governments. So, bankers limp on.
“Nothing in the short term looks threatening, but nothing in the long term looks sustainable”
Logan Wright, Rhodium Group
With revenue growth muted, bankers around the world have naturally turned to cost-cutting as the path to increased profit. Here, generative AI appears as a timely blessing.
With top-line expansion anemic, bankers around the world have naturally turned to cost-cutting as the path to increased profit. For that purpose, generative AI looks like a timely blessing. It’s not hard to see, in theory, how ChatGPT and its competitors could revolutionize a data-driven industry like finance, replacing expensive armies of human data analysts and manipulators, or, as consultants prefer to say, making their jobs more productive.
Evident’s Mousavizadeh cites one example: know-your-customer verifications for high-rolling clients, which “could take minutes or hours, not four months.” Other pipes in banks’ complex plumbing could likewise be massively automated, adds Vora, who rattles off “extracting data from loan agreements, analytical write-ups, credit memos, research notes.”
The revolution will not be quick or easy, however. “There’s a perception that AI is here and you can just plug it in,” Mousavizadeh says. “Nothing could be farther from the truth.”
Integrating AI into banking should not cost the massive investments envisioned by the hyperscalers battling to provide the underlying technology, says PwC’s Viergutz. But it will require “re-engineering business models front to back,” he says, rethinking essential processes that span geographies and layers of management.
The revolution will likely not be bloodless, either, as the banks that get AI right—and first—will eat their competitors’ lunch. With some exceptions, large banks with robust IT capabilities and the resources to attract AI talent stand to benefit the most, as effective AI use becomes a differentiator in profitability and growth.
Advantage should particularly accrue to large US banks, Mousavizadeh predicts. They have deeper pockets than their peers in Europe and elsewhere and can more easily poach the necessary brains from Silicon Valley.
“Rewiring requires specialized expertise, which is logical to pull in from tech companies,” she notes.
This year’s other front-page tech trend, digital assets, has so far had more limited relevance for banks. The category has rapidly gained legitimacy, particularly in the US, through Congress’s passage of the GENIUS Act, stablecoin issuer Circle’s $1 billion-plus OPI, and the president’s own $Trump meme coin. Demand for stablecoins and other digital instruments remains concentrated well beyond US shores, particularly in emerging markets, where people have historically used US cash in place of unstable domestic currencies and/or underdeveloped payment networks.
India, Nigeria, and Indonesia were the global Big Three for crypto transactions last year, according to researcher Chainalysis. “The extent of demand for stablecoins remains unclear in the US or Europe,” S&P’s Edwards says.
However, established banks are keenly interested in the blockchain technology that underpins digital assets, notes Biswarup Chatterjee, head of partnerships and innovation at Citigroup. Citi is seeing “very good adoption” of tokenized deposits, he notes, particularly from multinational corporations looking to link accounts around the world more seamlessly.
“Potentially no more having to send funds from New York on Friday evening to get them in time for use in Singapore on Monday morning,” he explains. “They can move money when and as they need it.”
Pioneered along with Bitcoin in 2009, blockchain networks are “converging around a few well-known protocols,” Chatterjee notes. “You’re almost able to see standard programming languages.”
Stage Set For Consolidation?
With no rising tide of growth to lift all boats, and ongoing technical shocks shaking some of the weaker craft, banking consolidation is expected to accelerate. In the US, home to more than 4,400 licensed banks, market pressures are getting an extra push from Washington, which has signaled more lenient antitrust regulation.
Fifth Third Bancorp, based in Cincinnati, fired what could be the opening gun last month, acquiring Texas-based Comerica in a transaction worth $11 billion to form the ninth-biggest US bank. More such deals could follow.
“The favorable regulatory landscape should drive consolidation,” Viergutz argues. “You could see one or two more deals of this scale.”
Japanese banks are showing an urge to merge for different reasons. Positive interest rates, after decades of deflation, are awakening ambitions to grab more customers and make more loans.
“In a world of interest rates, banks are eager to secure deposits to earn higher margins,”
Eiji Tanaguchi, senior economist at Japan Research Institute
An archipelago of 200 banks, many linked to shrinking rural communities, is under pressure as Tokyo increasingly dominates the national economy, Pictet’s Otsuki notes. “On a 10-year trend, Tokyo is absorbing almost all the new money,” she says. “Part of this is inheritance as the younger generation moves to the capital.”
Two deals this year—Gunma Bank merging with Daishi Hokuetsu Financial and Chiba Bank with Chiba Kogyo Bank—have already reshaped the regional banking landscape, although authorities seem less enthusiastic than across the Pacific.
“Support for consolidation is implicit, but not explicit,” Otsuki says.
Banking consolidation in Europe, by contrast, has stalled out.
Italy’s Unicredit tried to catalyze a long-anticipated wave of cross-border mergers last year with a raid on Germany’s Commerzbank, but a cold shoulder from Berlin prompted it to stop at a 26% shareholding. Unicredit CEO Andrea Orcel now says he hopes his target will “see the light over time.”
Other European governments are of a like mind with Germany’s lead, preferring insured deposits to stay in the hands of familiar national champions, Morningstar’s Scholtz says. “It’s really the same old story,” he says. “Governments have not been helpful.”
At the risk of a contradiction in terms, then, late 2025 is an exciting time to be a banker: so long as you are not a banker whose job is threatened by a bot or maybe running a private credit book. After years of adapting to stricter regulations and enduring near-zero interest rates, the industry has more of its destiny in its own hands and a firm balance sheet to pursue it.
“This period brings new opportunities for the sector,” Viergutz says. “Banks are becoming investible again. Profitability can go way up. I think it’s a win.”
For some, it probably does, and for others, much remains unclear.
UN chief says 700 million people live in extreme poverty as Qatar calls for doubling efforts to support Palestinians.
Doha, Qatar – A declaration of intent to fight deepening global inequality is a “booster shot for development”, the head of the United Nations declares.
At the Second World Summit for Social Development in Qatar on Tuesday, the president of the UN General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, announced the adoption of the Doha Political Declaration.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
“Social development and inclusion is essential for strong societies,” she said, adding that the declaration must “end social injustice and guarantee dignity for everyone, prioritising a people-first approach.”
In a keynote speech, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on global leaders to unite behind the “bold people’s plan”.
“It’s unconscionable that nearly 700 million people still live in extreme poverty while the richest 1 per cent own nearly half of global wealth,” he told the delegations.
“It’s intolerable that almost four billion people lack access to any form of social protection at all.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock attend the Second World Summit for Social Development [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]
The summit in Qatar’s capital, Doha, was convened to build on the development goals established 30 years ago during the Copenhagen Summit.
According to the UN, about 40 heads of state, 170 ministerial-level representatives, heads of NGOs and 14,000 delegates from around the world were expected to attend.
The declaration calls for commitments in several areas, including poverty eradication, access to “decent work”, social integration, gender equality and climate action.
Guterres noted the progress that has been made over the past three decades.
“Over one billion people have escaped extreme poverty. Global unemployment is at a near-historic low. Access to healthcare, education and social protection has dramatically expanded. People are living longer, and child and maternal mortality have declined. And more girls are attending school with rising graduation rates for all students,” he said.
However, he insisted that more challenges must be faced, saying the Second World Summit “opens at a moment of high global uncertainty, divisions, conflicts and widespread human suffering”.
“Developing countries are not getting the level of support they need,” he warned. “We are not moving fast enough to mitigate the volatility and outright destruction wrought by a warming planet.”
Peace and stability
Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, opened the event by calling for sustained efforts to support the Palestinian people amid the devastation of Israel’s two-year war on Gaza.
“It’s impossible to achieve social development in any society without peace and stability,” he said, adding that only “constant peace, not temporary settlements, is just peace.”
Calling on the international community to increase support for reconstruction, he added: “It goes without saying that the Palestinian people need all forms of aid to be able to recover from the devastation” caused by “the apartheid system in Palestine”.
Addressing reporters on the sidelines later, Guterres said he was “deeply concerned” by “continued violations of the ceasefire” in the enclave.
“They must stop, and all parties must abide by the decisions of the first phase of the peace agreement,” he demanded.
The emir also condemned the war crimes being carried out in Sudan.
“We express our collective shock at the horrific atrocities committed in the city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region and reaffirm our condemnation of these acts in the strongest terms,” Sheikh Tamim said after the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group captured the capital of North Darfur State last week.
