Global Banking Industry Outlook 2026

In this edition, we explore a global banking system entering 2026 with strong balance sheets but increasingly constrained resilience. Beneath the calm lies a structural reset: slower growth, fiscal pressure, demographic ageing and geopolitical fragmentation are narrowing the industry’s room to operate. As trade and payment corridors shift under sustained policy uncertainty, banks face a more selective, capital-intensive path to growth, even as digitalisation and market-based intermediation reshape how and where finance flows.

This issue also features insights from The Asian Banker RMB Internationalisation Report, showcasing the accelerating global adoption of the renminbi across trade settlement, financing and investment. Our piece on digital settlement regulation examines how interoperable, compliant systems can scale alongside established payment rails, drawing on expert perspectives.

With AI playing an increasingly central role in financial services, another feature explores how the technology is moving from experimental pilots to the backbone of financial infrastructure. This issue also includes CEO insights from TNEX’s Nguyen The Minh, examining how lending economics, funding structure and regulatory constraints shape the evolution of digital finance in Vietnam.