Strong economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa ( MENA ) and South Asia is driving the need among local businesses for well-rounded transaction banking services combining faster payments, more convenient collection, and better liquidity to empower their treasury capabilities.

Emerging as the new trade corridor between Asia and Europe, the MENA region beckons to CFOs and treasurers who want to strengthen their regional treasury connectivity. Accordingly, service providers are eagerly laying out solutions that are tailored to the needs of clients and can lead to innovation and excellence.

Indeed, the growing business volume in MENA is fuelling the need for consolidated treasury management solutions. Many treasurers from multinational corporations ( MNCs ) want to set up a regional treasury centre in cities like Dubai to increase their cash management efficiency. And banks are there to meet the market demand and provide solutions such as those related to payment process automation and digitization.

MENA is also experiencing an investment boom in infrastructure projects, driven by global investors’ appetite for energy transition assets and sustainable development. This has led to a buoyant market for cross-border trade finance. From plain instruments like letters of credit and bank guarantees to structured solutions that incorporate export credit agency and border parties along the supply chain, service providers are unveiling more options to support their clients’ funding requirements.   

In South Asia, excitement comes from the continued economic ascent of India, whose growing population and swelling middle class attract MNCs and large local companies to expand their businesses in the vibrant market. Many of them see the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City ( GIFT City ), India’s special economic zone, as a fertile ground for treasury management because of its modern infrastructure and facilities, ample and readily available talent, and company-friendly policies. GIFT City also creates opportunities for banks to build up their tradebooks by providing innovative and scalable solutions for their clients. 

India’s telecommunication, technology, energy, and mobility sectors are witnessing rapid expansion, which has led to more dealer financing transactions among companies. Solutions involving standby letters of credit and insurance-backed non-recourse payment structures help to mitigate counterparty risks in large-sized deals that are critical to the country’s further development.

Meanwhile, companies from the new economy segment, including fintech firms, non-banking financial institutions, and social enterprises, are deepening their partnerships with banks to navigate the evolving regulatory and economic environment in India. Finally, solutions with green or sustainability-linked elements have become a powerful differentiator both in cash management and trade financing.  

In frontier economies like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, treasury teams are also undergoing digital transformation. Many companies are now implementing working capital management through API, host-to-host connectivity or virtual accounts with automatic reconciliation functions to simplify payment and collection processes. On top of that, structured trade finance solutions have facilitated cross-border financing in these markets, contributing to the development of individual companies and the general economy.

Witnessing all these exciting trends and new practices, we are pleased to recognize the banks that made a difference for their clients in the MENA and South Asia regions in the past year.

Over the review period the board of editors were likewise presented a number of noteworthy solutions from the South Asia and MENA subregion. These included impactful hedging and risk solutions where companies such as Hindustan Zinc Limited for instance leveraged on a technology provider to better manage foreign exchange risk exposure across multi-company and multi-location treasury module.

Likewise several companies in India sought service providers that could help them with their cash management pain points whether it be improving visibility/control or providing effective ways to pay and collect from their business partners. For example, Boehringer Ingelheim India worked with their service provider to offered a comprehensive cash management solution optimizing transactional processing, enhancing visibility and automation.

When it came to trade finance and supply chain finance, a number of companies fully embraced different services with a unified goal to improve their working capital and financing processes. Hindustan Unilever Limited in India leveraged on the advantages found in India’s Gift City to execute the first cross-border supply chain financing solution for procurement of key raw material through the offshore hub. In Bangladesh, TotalEnergies partnered with a multilateral organisation to issue SBLC to help eliminate the cross-border risk when exporting LNG to the country.

Other solutions presented to the board of editors involved supporting large local Asian corporates expanding their presence to other regions such as the Middle East. For example, China Railway Construction Corporation - Saudi Branch worked with their service provider to install a fully functioning treasury function in the country to support its infrastructure operations involving enhanced usability of cash and working capital management.

These solutions in the subregions of South Asia and MENA just represent the tip of the iceberg of critical winning solutions presented to the board of editors.

For the complete list of winners of Best service providers in MENA please go here. To see list of winners in South Asia, please click here.

For the complete list of winning treasury solutions, please click here.

To learn more about these awards, please click here.

To join the in-person annual celebratory dinner in Hong Kong on May 21, 2025 please contact us at celebrate@theasset.com.

Stay tuned in the coming days as we announce the winners of The Asset Triple A Treasurise Awards 2025.