Asia Risk marks 20th anniversary

Asia's capital markets have evolved over the last two decades - and so has Asia Risk

This year sees Asia Risk reach its twentieth anniversary – and a lot of things have changed since it was first published in 1995. In that year China's GDP stood at $728 billion according to the World Bank; two decades of supercharged growth saw this figure soar to over $10 trillion. In contrast Hong Kong's GDP has expanded from $150 to $280 billion over the same period – meaning the Special Administrative Region's economy has shrunk from just under 25% of the size of the Middle Kingdom's to less than a 4% share in just two decades.

The Asian financial landscape has also changed dramatically. In 1995 the American Banker magazine published a list ranking the largest banks by assets; all in the top 10 were Japanese. Number one that year was a lender called Sanwa, a firm no longer in existence as a stand-alone business having been subsumed into Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) as Japan PLC cleaned up its balance sheet at the start of the millennium.

Fast forward to 2015 and while Asian firms still play a leading role in the top 10, only one Japanese firm makes it: MUFG. As China's economy has expanded so have its banks: the largest lender globally is now Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, one of three Chinese banks, plus a China-focused lender in the shape of HSBC in the top 10.

Asia Risk has also changed dramatically. Originally a quarterly supplement to Risk, rapidly rising interest in the region's derivative markets saw it spun out into a stand-alone publication by 1997 – just in time for a ringside seat on the Asian Financial Crisis and the move to monthly printing. Several iterations later and as part of the Risk.net platform it is available on tablets, phones, desktops and apps, in addition to the print version itself.

And now time for another slight tweak. As Asia's capital markets become more sophisticated the impact of global moves, particularly regulatory ones, becomes more important. So in addition to being the only publication to exclusively cover Asian derivative markets it will also include more news, features and stories on the global financial sector from our colleagues in London in New York.