Don’t expect a flood of IPOs, but there are still placements across Asia Pacific.

Yet another multi-billion-dollar loss on investments in SoftBank’s Vision Funds speaks to a malaise that is hurting the tech teams of investment banks in Asia.

The southern Chinese city has set out ambitious plans to become one of the world’s top wealth-management centres. With one of China’s largest onshore pools of private wealth, there is everything to play for.

The Korean government and the central bank will have their work cut out for them in 2023. They must overcome a loss of trust and criticisms over raising rates too quickly if they want to keep the economy humming and avoid a new crisis.

South Korea must do more to address diversity in the workplace. A few of the country’s banks are leading by example.

CTBC Bank is quietly making inroads in its quest to be a regional banking powerhouse, through strategic acquisitions and big international expansion plans.

Hong Kong’s tough line on Spacs is intended to protect investors and stop low-calibre companies from getting a listing via the backdoor. With just two Spac IPOs so far in the city, the asset class has struggled to attract the kind of enthusiasm seen in other markets such as the US.

The Hong Kong dollar’s peg to the US dollar – and the question of its survival – is once again a hot topic. But this time, the stakes are higher than ever before.

The combination of China’s crackdown on technology companies, its zero-Covid strategy and its domestic property crisis have buffeted Chinese stocks this year. In order for sentiment to stabilize and for the economy to develop, reforms are needed urgently, putting more emphasis on the private sector and less on GDP growth.