SCMP wins two honours as State Street’s Institutional Awards return

South China Morning Post journalists Enoch Yiu and Mia Castagnone won two of the nine top honours at State Street Corporation’s 2023 Asia-Pacific Institutional Press Awards in Hong Kong.

Yiu, a veteran at the Post of almost three decades, won the top prize in the “Investor Services” category with her May 2023 feature article about the dual-currency stocks on the city’s bourse operated by Hong Kong Clearing and Exchanges Limited (HKEX).

Castagnone, who started at the Post as a graduate trainee in June 2021, won the award for “Best Newcomer” for her March 2023 story about how Credit Suisse’s Hong Kong-style hawker stalls became the signature of its swan song investors’ conference, after the bank’s takeover by its rival UBS across the Banhhofstrasse in Zurich.

“Congratulations to the award winners and the highly commended journalists for their quality and professional work over the course of this year,” said Mostapha Tahiri, State Street’s chief executive for the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and North Africa. “We are pleased to host this special event again, which we launched in 2012 to recognise the journalists’ contribution in illuminating the latest developments in the financial world, for both the investment community and public readers.”

The award’s panel of seven judges reviewed hundreds of nominations from six Asia-Pacific countries contending for prizes in nine categories in English: Pension, Investment, Technology, Alternatives, Regulation, ESG, Best Editorial Comment, Investor Services and Newcomer. Another five categories were established for entries written in Chinese, comprising Investment, Alternatives, Technology, ESG and Newcomer.

Each award category in both English and Chinese honoured three journalists, selecting a winner in each and selecting two entries as “Highly Commended.” A total of 44 citations were given out.

“The sheer volume of entries combined with their outstanding quality testify to the enduring enthusiasm for these press awards and the recognition they represent for journalists in the region,” said the awards’ lead judge William Mellor. “For the judges, picking winners from such a talented field was both challenging and stimulating.”

The winning articles were chosen based on their style, content, accuracy and timeliness, and were judged by an independent panel of seven judges led by Mellor. The panel of judges comprise the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s journalism professor Anthony Fung, the Financial Services Development Council’s executive director King Au, the media entrepreneur Jame DiBiasio, the Hong Kong Green Finance Association’s deputy secretary general Jenny Lee, the CFA Institute’s Asia-Pacific managing director Nick Pollard and Alizila’s Managing Editor Alison Tudor-Ackroyd.

State Street’s press awards, marking their eighth iteration in 2023, returned after a four-year pause during Hong Kong’s 2019 street protests and the Covid-19 pandemic, as newsroom coverage picked up pace in lockstep with economic activity across the region. During the most recent awards in 2018, the Post’s Deputy Business Editor Peggy Sito won the “Investment” category with a feature story about how 10 investors divvied up a 73-story office tower through an unorthodox process.

The sponsor handed out a discretionary award this year to Tim Burroughs, editor of the Asian Venture Capital Journal (AVCJ), to honour his outstanding contribution to institutional journalism. He received three other citations on the day, winning the “Alternatives” category, and was being “Highly Commanded” in the Pensions and ESG groupings.