To recognise individuals who reshaped not only the institutions that they worked for, but the entire financial services industry in their respective countries and regions, The Asian Banker seeks to recognise people who are considered giants in the industry because of their lifetime contributions and leadership.

This is perhaps the most prestigious of the achievement awards, as it recognises those who have gone ahead of us in the industry, and have distinguished their reputations, skills and achievements over a lifetime, setting the benchmark from which we assess others who distinguish themselves on current achievements. The lifetime winners recognised in the past have made considerable contributions to the building of institutions that have gone from strength to strength, and in some cases have created an entire industry in their respective countries.

There is a common thread among those who have won this recognition in the past, even when we were not specifically looking for these traits: humility, integrity of the highest order, larger than life accomplishments in the industry and an uncanny common sense that is increasingly ignored in business today. Their accomplishments are well regarded by both friend and foe alike, regardless of whom we interview to get a peer review. Only a few men and women will ever win this prestigious recognition, and those who do will always be a beacon to the rest of us.

The criteria by which we assess candidates for this award are:

• Time spent in the industry (we also take into consideration time spent in other industries that contributed to a candidate’s involvement in the financial services industry).
• Assess the candidate relative to peers in the industry, with achievements over and above peers in the industry.
• We assess the performance of the institution(s) for which the candidate demonstrated leadership in terms of financial and business achievement.
• We assess the candidate’s statesmanship as demonstrated by activities outside of the institution.
• We look for specific incidents during the candidate’s career that demonstrate leadership ability in terms of the degree of difficulty, tenacity, and creativity in solving these incidents.
• We review performance against the transformation taking place in the industry, such as liberalisation, intense competition, the impact of technology, and others in the industry.
• In all the time the person has been in the industry, the highest level of integrity, a larger-than-life accomplishments in the industry, and an uncanny common sense will be ever-present traits.

The Asian Banker Achievement Awards programme recognises CEO leadership of financial institutions, complex businesses that are central to the economies of the countries in which they operate. To ensure that heads of banks in each country can be reviewed over a meaningful period of time, this award is made only once every three years. The next time these awards will be given will be in 2010 and 2013. 

The awards are based on a very rigorous evaluation process, starting with a region-wide survey in January, a review of three years financial performance of the institution and a review of the strategic initiatives of the organisation. The assessment for the awards is made on four inter-related criteria:

• The financial performance of the business under consideration over a three year period. Here we look at annual results, or the financial performance of the business under review. Strong bottom line performance is the first determinant of a leader’s suitability for consideration for this award. But we also look at the sustainability of the business and the commitment to shareholders through stringent cost management and the ability to respond to competition over time.
• Specific achievements in the years under review. We then look for either a specific achievement or a series of achievements in the years under consideration. The size and complexity of the achievement(s), the degree of difficulty and challenges encountered and overcome that demonstrates courage and leadership are taken into account.
• Based on a well-communicated vision. Businesses and their leaders are shaped by a long-term vision that is demonstrated not just by statements, but also through the long-term development of a strategic business plan that defines a business. We look at statements made by the leader and the execution that supports those statements.
• Augmentation by a good team. Sustainable businesses cannot only be built around individuals, but the strength of a team following a singular vision that can also react to incidents as a single entity. We look at the people around the leader, their commitment levels and sense of ownership of the businesses and operations entrusted to them.

This award is made in conjunction with the Leadership Achievement Award in the belief that true leadership results in strong and sustainable franchises, either at the local or regional levels. The “Strongest Banks in Asia” programme is predicated on the following qualities:

• a superior domestic franchise under the leadership of the chairman or CEO,
• strong commitment to domestic customers at the product and service levels,
• strong governance structure at both the board and management levels under the leadership of the chairman or CEO recognised in the Leadership programme,
• the ability to execute on strategy and respond to changes in the marketplace,
• leading towards a stable and long term commitment to all shareholders.

It has become very clear that the fortitude, vision and leadership of women has been making some very important breakthroughs in the development of the financial services industry in the region. Very often, the contribution of these women are not recognised sufficiently by the mainstream institutions, even when they operate within mainstream institutions themselves. In some cases, these women work silently by making financial services relevant to local communities that then go on to progress through the availability of funding  and access to capital. These are women who are likely to be found in bustling financial centres as much as they are likely to be found in remote cities – the common qualities being their patient nurturing of business models to bring them to fruition and make a distinct and fundamental impact on the industry. Assessment for this award is made by The Asian Banker’s editorial team from their interview of different people in the region. But submissions can also be made in the form of a “letter of nomination” to recognise the work of outstanding women, giving the following information:

1. the name and background of the woman leader being nominated
2. the business, activity or achievement that the woman is being nominated for, citing quantifiable and tangible impact of the candidate’s leadership on the results of the business or activity.
3. a sentence citing the reason being a woman made the difference to the work she undertook
4. CV of the woman being nominated

This award is designed to benchmark what we believe to be examples of leadership in the Asia Pacific region against what is being achieved by leaders in other parts of the world, especially in world class institutions. It is also an award that enables us in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions to communicate to global leaders in the industry that we are watching them, and that our own leaders are aware of their achievements and shortcomings.

This award is made based on an annual poll what asks “which leaders outside the Asia Pacific region do you admire the most and why?” The reasons provided are usually around the achievement of the institutions they lead. In the period of the global crisis, the leaders of institutions that withstood the impact of the crisis, and grew despite it, were given special distinction.

Good, strong and fair-minded regulators also play a part in the development of a robust and sustainable financial services industry. Every year we recognise a regulator who has tackled an important development in the industry or introduced a policy of far reaching impact. The factors we take into account include:

• Area(s) in the industry that received regulatory involvement in the year under review, including an economic or banking crisis or a positive development in the industry
• The role played by the regulator in response to the area under review
• The leadership demonstrated by the regulator, in relation to the political system, the industry or customers at large.
• The tangible result

In the absence of an issue or a recent development, we also study the development of the regulatory institution itself to assess if by the quality of the leadership, the management bench strength, transparent execution of policies and general relationship with the industry it provided strong leadership and direction to the financial services industry as a whole.

This award is made to recognise a completed M&A transaction between significant institutions in a country or between institutions from different countries that are of seminal value in shaping the future of the industry. M&As between financial institutions are complex and difficult to execute. No submission is required for this category as analysis is made from announced deals. The considerations that we take into account include:

• Size and importance of the deal to the marketplace in which it serves.
• The qualities of the deal, including synergies between the organisation and potential for building critical mass and other benefits from the merger.
  
• Complexity of the integration process – generally we will reserve judgment until the integration is completed, unless the value of the deal is undeniable at the onset
  
• The role of leadership in the deal
  
  

The Asian Banker Research team will study the operational aspects of the integration and submit their report for the consideration of the advisory council.

The Promising Young Bankers Award was instituted to start a process to engender the future leadership of the industry. The award is given to 2-3 promising young executives in each country in the region who have been given bottom-line leadership responsibilities under the age of 40, and whose career trajectory is clearly in the process of preparing them for top leadership in the next 10 years. This award is given every three years. The next time that it will be awarded will be 2011 and 2014.

Candidates for promising young bankers must be recommended by their CEOs or boards for these awards. The letter of recommendation should cite the following factors:

• their performance in the roles of responsibility given to them with tangible results cited
• their leadership of teams
• their career trajectory as seen by the person recommending

Candidates being recommended can be from any business (retail, corporate/investment banking, transactional banking and so on) or operational line (technology, operations, risk) but his or her roles must contribute to the bottom line of the bank’s business.

The Asian Banker research team will corroborate the letter of recommendation with an independent assessment process that will include interviewing their peers from within the bank as well as from other competing institutions, before short listing the candidate for the award.