Their political leaders may be refusing to endorse China’s Belt and Road Initiative, but British and US banks are still rushing to seize opportunities thrown up by Beijing’s vast investment in the “new silk road” trade corridors spanning 65 countries.

The hundreds of billions of dollars China has committed to trade and infrastructure projects across much of central and south-east Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa has whetted the appetite of big western banks with operations in those areas, such as Citigroup, HSBC and Standard Chartered. 

“It’s huge — the private sector capital that comes in afterwards will be really impactful, assuming it all happens,” says Bill Winters, chief executive of Standard Chartered. “Our job is to try and pull the different pieces together, because there will be some local financing that is required as well.”