The past 12 months have continued to be challenging for the global economy, driven by a high-interest-rate environment, geopolitical tensions, and now the escalating trade war. US President Donald Trump has announced sweeping tariffs, creating deep economic uncertainty and wiping out trillions of dollars in stock market value. Global trade is expected to decline this year, and fears of further supply chain disruptions are reinforced.

Such a market backdrop is propelling transaction banking service providers into overdrive to help their clients manage risks. They have become trusted advisers on how to conduct business and adopt new business models for growth. Companies, meanwhile, are embracing digitization to bolster their cash and liquidity management capability.

As witnessed in the past year, the escalating trade war is driving further trade re-alignment and opening new trade corridors. The Middle East, for example, is growing in importance as it is seen as a growth area, attracting investment flows from other regions, such as North Asia, as shifts in trade relations and the search for new markets continue.

Meanwhile, trade corridors within Asia-Pacific are thriving. This is exemplified by the expansion of China’s trade relations with the rest of North Asia and the growth of its connections with the Asean region and India. The China-Hong Kong corridor continues to be a growth pillar, while the Asean corridor benefits from the China+1 strategy as businesses diversify their supply chains and manufacturing presence away from China and towards other countries. Chinese corporates themselves are accelerating their overseas expansion to capture new markets and improve profitability amid a challenging geopolitical landscape.

India continues to generate a lot of attention from service providers. The establishment of GIFT City in the state of Gujarat is considered a game changer. The high-tech financial hub offers a competitive tax regime with various tax benefits and concessions to businesses and investors, both domestic and foreign.

Addressing pain points

All these developments demonstrate how countries are navigating new macroeconomic and geopolitical realities. In the corporate space, CFOs and treasurers continue to seek solutions to address their pain points and enhance their treasury operations, focusing their attention on risk management in the face of market volatility. Digitization has been a cornerstone of the treasury transformation, enabling real-time access to data while helping optimize cash flow and speed up payments. Banks are applying AI ( artificial intelligence ) solutions to boost their capabilities and enhance their clients’ treasury experience.

The new economy sector has become a key growth segment for service providers as it generates sizeable revenues from the cash management perspective through structuring customized or bespoke solutions to clients, such as digital asset companies or cryptocurrency exchanges. New economy companies, for instance, require smoother cross-border payment solutions to process transactions quickly and save costs.

In terms of trade finance, banks are increasingly offering local financing solutions amid the higher-for-longer interest rate environment and strong US dollar – and helping clients take advantage of cheaper funding in the onshore debt markets across the region.

Meanwhile, ESG-linked solutions have become a staple of service providers in meeting their client requirements. Corporates aspire to embed sustainability in their operations and even extend this focus to their counterparties with the implementation of sustainable supply chains.

New ESG-linked products are also being rolled out such as ESG-linked corporate cash deposit that links the credit balance interest rate with the client’s ESG-related performance.

This market landscape provides the backdrop for heightened competition among the service providers as they vie for the prestigious The Asset Triple A Treasurise Awards 2025. The winners for several awards’ categories will be announced, Oscars-style, at a gala event on May 21, 2025 in Hong Kong.

Showcasing regional winners

Our board of editors however, recently announced several regional categories for The Asset’s Treasurise Awards 2025 to honour institutions that demonstrated outstanding expertise in specific fields.

Deutsche Bank wins in several of these regional categories, including Best Structured Trade Finance Bank, Best Risk Management Bank and Best Liquidity Management Bank. In structured trade, the bank is cited for its client-centric and structured solutioning mindset for clients in emerging markets. During the review period, it executed complex solutions to ensure that clients had the financing they needed to proceed with their projects via local currency financing solutions or ECA-backed instruments.

In 2024, Deutsche Bank also displayed its ability to structure key risk management solutions through its highly touted WorkFlow Solutions service that allowed cash management clients to utilize the bank’s foreign exchange capabilities and helped companies with automated and transparent foreign exchange transactions.

For liquidity management, the bank was a trusted service provider, supporting CFOs and treasurers with their funding obligations, driving yield improvement and offering alternative investment vehicles. The bank’s dbCIS ( cash investment service ) provided clients with a variety of market-leading money-market solutions.

Deutsche Bank is also honoured as Best in Treasury and Working Capital for New Economy companies, defending its position against a competitive field of service providers for the high-growth client segment. Over the review period, the bank revamped its setup to make it fully aligned across all regions and functions with dedicated coverages, sales and product teams. This has led to increased onboarding of clients from e-commerce platforms to crypto companies, all of which voiced strong satisfaction with the bank’s service.

Bank of America wins a couple of regional awards including Best E-Solutions Partner Bank for showcasing a number of useful in-house technology tools to help clients manage their day-to-day transactions. These include its popular CashPro module, which has seen rapid growth in usage after introducing enhancements to cash forecasting, intelligent receivables, and supply chain solutions.

The US-based bank is also named Best in Treasury and Working Capital for NBFIs for its proactive brand of service for asset managers, insurance companies and third-party payment processes in the region, which has led to a significant growth in the number of clients and a deepening of wallet penetration in Asia. For the asset management and private capital segment, the bank has streamlined the KYC process, resulting in positive client feedback.

Standard Chartered wins as Best Fintech Partner for its ability to effectively evaluate and deploy relevant fintech solutions to end-clients. During the review period, the bank was active in the sizeable markets of China and India, collaborating with key players. In 2024, it established notable fintech partnerships including with Paxos, United Fintech and PayerMax, with the latter empowering global merchants in cross-border transactions.

The Best in Treasury and Working Capital for Emerging Corporates award goes to Standard Chartered. Clients cited the bank’s ability to be a reliable partner in supporting their growth aspirations, whether it be offering multi-currency cash management solutions or providing guidance on technology integration via APIs. They also cited the bank’s sustainable finance solutions via supply chain financing or sustainable deposits, which are commonly offered only to larger companies.

BNP Paribas is honoured as the Best in Treasury and Working Capital for MNCs, having presented a number of complex and impactful treasury solutions for some of the world’s largest companies. The bank helped European companies looking to deepen their roots in Asia by setting up a regional treasury in Singapore or implementing a scalable supply chain finance solution using credit insurance to offset risks. The bank’s win is supported by positive testimonials from clients who shared how the bank was proactive in meeting their needs.

HSBC is bestowed the Best in Treasury and Working Capital for LLCs award after the bank notched up compelling client satisfaction scores from The Asset’s annual Treasury Review survey. During the review period, it deepened its relationships with the leading domestic companies in growth markets such as India and Vietnam. The bank was particularly active in servicing the trade finance requirements of this client segment, helping them with end-to-end supply chain financing and ESG-related financing.

DBS repeats as the Best in Treasury and Working Capital for SMEs in the region for displaying steadfast commitment to offering best-in-class services to companies in this segment. Backed by positive and supportive client testimonials, the bank has continued to be a strong partner for SMEs. During the review period, DBS recorded strong growth in clients, resulting in increased deposits and higher fee income. The bank has focused on helping clients with sustainable practices, technology deployment and regional connectivity to scale their respective businesses in line with market trends.

BNY has also successfully defended its title as the Best in Treasury and Working Capital for FIs. Several leading institutions in the region have praised the bank for its knowledgeable and reliable service. During the review period, BNY was busy forging partnerships with banks on a range of services from near real-time cross-border payments to trade across both developing and frontier markets. It has placed technology at the heart of its business, leveraging artificial intelligence and data analytics to add value to the services of institutions to their clients.

In addition to spotlighting regional winners we are also pleased to honour several Editors' Triple Star products that offer clients useful tools to enhance their treasury function. Awarded annually these products are solutions that reflect the views of The Asset as forward-thinking innovative and pragmatic.

Highlighting regional treasury solutions 

There were also a number of award winning regional treasury solutions as well against this market backdrop with companies working with service providers to establish regional connectivity in their internal operations. Some noteworthy regional solutions include one executed by Trip.com which involves the combination of reference accounts, FX APIs, reporting APIs and domestic and cross-border sweeps, which helps the new economy to simplify its account reconciliation and reporting processes.

Air Liquide likewise implemented an important solution involving with its service provider on treasury transformation advisory that involved banking rationalization, unified SWIFTNET connectivity across multiple countries resulting in a robust platform and integrated infrastructure.

TeamViewer Germany supported its operations in the Philippines and Malaysia by using a solution that allows the company to easily identify, calculate, and execute FX to effect inter-company payments, improving the liquidity management and control for the headquarter office.

Looking to better manage its accounts across the region, Sea Limited developed a enhanced treasury management function through consolidating domestic cash management across three network markets and introducing process improvements to automate and streamline regulatory documentation.

To view the full list of winning treasury solutions or for more information about these awards please go here.

For the list of the regional nominees/winners and Editors' Triple Star awardees, please click here.

This concludes our website announcements of winning solutions and banks as part of the Triple A Treasurise Awards 2025. Stay tuned for the Oscar-style reveal of several regional categories at our awards gala on May 21, 2024. To join the in-person annual celebratory dinner, please contact us at celebrate@theasset.com.