Digital banks in Asia Pacific witnessed improving overall profitability in FY2019. Although some digital banks’ net profit in FY2020 has been affected by COVID-19 pandemic, their growth outlook remains optimistic.

Retail banking sector has been the main growth driver for Indian banking sector during the past few years, as banks’ exposure to corporate banking sector has been reduced due to bad loans problems. Their retail lending has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.2% over the FY2013 to FY2018 period, making India's retail banking one of the biggest among emerging markets.

The Top 100 banks in consumer banking in Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa is the result of The Asian Banker International Excellence in Retail Financial Services Programme, the most rigorous, prestigious and transparent audit programme for consumer banking.

The global financial industry has evolved as a result of the widespread digital transformation of traditional banks and the entrance of new digital banks. In the Middle East, the legal framework is slowly developing, which will open up the market to more digital banks.

A year after Hong Kong issued eight digital banking licences, Mox and ZA Bank have emerged as the early leaders. Together with WeLab, the three banks account for 86% of all virtual banking deposit in Hong Kong.

The most competitive digital retail financial institutions come all but from China, and the elite club of the top 10, representing all non-bank financial players, are exclusively from China, Korea and Australia

Wide discontent with conventional banks have led to the emergence of mobile-only fintech banks. However, these challenger banks are struggling to expand their customer reach, putting doubts whether they can stand against bigger traditional banks.

Innovations emerging from East and West African banking hubs are enabling the sector to take a lead in reaching Africa’s unbanked population but much remains to be done.

Formal financial institutions have connected only 22% of the Indonesian population. A huge potential for the financial sector still needs to be explored, and digitised lending, which combines retail banking with financial technology, should be a future solution.

Despite considerable variations within the Middle East and Africa, the banking sector as a whole achieved good financial performance in 2014

Indian banks still dominate the list of the top 10 banks with the highest nonperforming loan (NPL)ratio among the 500 largest banks in Asia Pacific, despite the improved asset quality. In addition, the list also includes two banks from Bangladesh and one each from China, Japan, and Pakistan.

Al Rajhi Bank retained the top spot in the rankings of the largest and the strongest Islamic banks in the world. Malaysia had the most Islamic banks on the list, while Saudi Arabia held the largest share of total assets