Retail Banker International (RBI) today announced the winners of the RBI Asia Trailblazer Awards 2026, honouring the banks and financial institutions leading the way in retail banking innovation across the Asia-Pacific region.
Now in its 17th year, the RBI Asia Trailblazer Awards is one of the region’s most prestigious retail banking recognition programmes, with entries assessed by an independent panel of senior industry judges on the basis of innovation, customer impact and measurable outcomes.
This year’s results highlighted the maturation of technology-led banking across the region, with artificial intelligence, cloud transformation and data analytics featuring prominently across multiple categories. Generative AI, open banking and superapp experiences all produced strong, well-evidenced entries, reflecting a shift from strategic ambition to customer-facing execution.
Financial inclusion and sustainability also featured strongly, with institutions across the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand demonstrating that social impact and commercial performance are increasingly complementary.
“The RBI Asia Awards 2026 reflect a regional banking sector that has moved decisively from digital ambition to digital delivery. The quality and depth of entries this year was exceptional, and these winners represent the very best of retail banking innovation in Asia-Pacific,” said Sarah Rizvi, editor, Retail Banker International Events.
The programme’s highest honour, the RBI Asia Trailblazer Award was presented to United Overseas Bank, recognising exceptional leadership and innovation across the retail banking landscape.
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Kiran Khatri of Citibank was recognised as Rising Star in the People Awards.
The full list of RBI Asia Awards 2026 winners is available at: https://events.meed.com/event/rbiasiatrailblazerawards/#award-winners
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