The first six months of the year proved to be Swiss bank UBS' time as it continues to stretch its advantage in Asia-Pacific reserve underwriting. The bank has a long account in going after Southeast Asian markets which aided it in capitalizing on a surge of contracts in the said region.

UBS was able to gather US$120.8 million in estimated fees. In the past eight years, it was able to lead the Asia-Pacific equity capital market association seven times. Its revenue is also higher than the combined earnings of the two banks that come after it.

The Southeast Asian deals in equity capital market rose 54% to $22.5 billion within the first half of the year. An initial data from Thomson Reuters showed that Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia's stock offerings more than doubled.

Head of Asia equity association at UBS AG, Damien Brosnan, said "We had a lot of issuance and there's still a lot of deals waiting to be done in Southeast Asia."