2021 year in Review: Global Custodians saw

CUSTODY 2021 YEAR IN REVIEW | CUSTODY

Custody

2021 Year in Review

Custody reaches new heights in 2021

Last year saw the world’s largest custodians competing for mandates and with new service.

JANUARY

BNY Mellon’s custody assets top $41 trillion BNY Mellon’s custody business lagged State Street’s on asset growth in the fourth quarter but BNY remained the largest bank by assets under custody at $41.1 trillion (£30 trillion), up from $37.1 trillion in the same period last year.

The bank said the rise reflected higher market values and client inflows, as well as the favourable impact of a weaker US dollar and net new business.

FEBRUARY

Northern Trust, IHS Markit extend partnership Northern Trust has entered an agreement with IHS Markit, which provides a multi-asset investment management platform dubbed thinkFolio, to streamline operations for asset managers and asset owners.

The partnership will see the integration of thinkFolio and the Chicago-headquartered bank’s middle office outsourcing platform to offer mutual institutional clients access to solutions and leverage the firms’ strengths in the investment value chain.

Citi names ex-State Street exec as EU custody head Citi has named Maria Cantillon as its head of sales for custody and fund services for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea), where she replaces Matthew Bax.

Cantillon joins from State Street where she spent more than a decade, most recently as the Emea head of sector solutions and before, as the global head of alternatives asset manager solutions.

MARCH

Diginex set to launch multi-custodial solution Singapore digital assets firm Diginex is gearing up for a multi-custody offering on its institutional crypto exchange EQUOS as it launches its own utility token.

“We’re… the first Nasdaq-listed company to issue its own token,” chief executive Richard Byworth told Global Investor. “The token will form collateral for derivatives on our platform. You can effectively earn the token by trading on the platform and then those earnings can be used on their own as a collateral base for your options trading.”

APRIL

BNY Mellon surges forward with collateral initiative BNY Mellon continues to find opportunities in the collateral management space and is pushing forward with its ‘Future of Collateral’ initiative, as it looks to help clients utilise their high-quality assets.

Brian Ruane, chief exec of clearing and collateral management for the bank, said: “The move fits directly into our larger ‘Future of Collateral’ initiative and is part of our commitment to provide our clients with the ability to connect high quality assets into our triparty platform more efficiently in order that those assets can both be used for their general collateral management needs.”

MAY

Clearstream Fund Centre part of four-pronged strategy – CEO The CHF 390 million (£308 million) acquisition of the remaining 49% of a fund distributor from UBS represents one part of a four-pronged strategy at post-trade giant Clearstream, its chief executive has said.

Deutsche Boerse-owned Clearstream acquired the 49% of a Zurich-based fund platform owned by Swiss bank UBS, meaning that Clearstream now has 100% of the firm after it bought 51% in September 2020.

JUNE

Northern Trust names new APAC head Northern Trust has named Angelo (Ange) Calvitto as head of Asia Pacific (APAC), who takes over from William Mak who is retiring from the bank after 11 years.

Peter Cherecwich, president of Corporate & Institutional Services, Northern Trust, commented: “The Asia-Pacific region is a leading centre for technology innovation, with Singapore as a key hub, particularly for our blockchain initiatives.”

JULY

State Street strengthens ties in the Middle East US custody giant State Street has formed an alliance with First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) to offer enhanced securities services to clients in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena).

The partnership will combine FAB’s regional securities services know-how with State Street’s global capabilities.

CSDR, T+1 could impact middle offices - report The looming European settlement discipline regime and the proposed US T+1 settlement cycle could be problematic for trading firms’ middle offices, a new survey has suggested.

Torstone Technology and GreySpark Partners surveyed 58 participants working in middle office roles across Emea, Asia Pacific and North America from both buy and sell-side institutions.

AUGUST

BNP Paribas secures QFI license in China BNP Paribas has been given the green light to provide custody services in China under its Qualified Foreign Investor (QFI) scheme.

Effective immediately, the bank can now directly support foreign institutional investors across the full scope of schemes, allowing access to China’s equity and bond markets, will also providing a full range of foreign exchange services.

BNY Mellon begins securities services offering in Saudi BNY Mellon and Saudi-based SNB Capital announced institutional clients now have access to securities services capabilities in Saudi Arabia.

The US custody bank announced in October of last year that it had entered into an alliance with NCB Capital, now known as SNB Capital after merging with Samba Capital. Citi names Southgate head of collateral in Europe Global custodian Citi has named John Southgate as its new director, head of collateral services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Working in the bank’s securities services division, Southgate will lead the bank’s collateral efforts across the region. He joins the banking giant from Margin Reform, where he was a senior consultant for 12 months.

SEPTEMBER

State Street to acquire Brown Brothers Harriman State Street has said it plans to acquire Brown Brothers Harriman’s Investor Services business for $3.5 billion (£2.54 billion) in cash, subject to regulatory approval.

The deal refers to Brown Brothers Harriman’s (BBH) custody, accounting, fund administration, global markets and technology services. BBH will continue to own and operate its private banking and investment management businesses following the acquisition. State Street said the transaction would advance its plans on being the global leading asset servicer.

Broadridge to reshuffle its asset servicing offering Broadridge has said it is looking to reshuffle its asset servicing line over the next six months to give clients a more unified product offering.

Demi Derem, general manager, international investor communication solutions at Broadridge, said: “We are looking to bring together our individual asset servicing component capabilities under one product umbrella. Effectively bringing together our proxy and corporate actions, sourcing, and execution solutions.”

OCTOBER

Northern Trust promotes Paulin to newly created role Northern Trust has promoted Gary Paulin to lead global strategic solutions for the US custody bank’s asset servicing unit.

In the new London-based role, Paulin reports to Pete Cherecwich, president of corporate & institutional services at Northern Trust.

BNY Mellon ‘winning against competition’ - CEO BNY Mellon has said it is seeing improved client retention rates and it is “definitely winning against the competition” as the US banking group reported assets under custody up 17% to more than $45 trillion (£32.6 trillion).

NOVEMBER

CSDR mandatory buy-ins delayed – Commissioner The European Commission, Council and Parliament have agreed to delay the mandatory buy-ins under the settlement discipline regime of the Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR).

Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for financial services, financial stability and Capital Markets Union, said she welcomed the agreement of the European Parliament and the Council to change CSDR and allow a postponement of mandatory buy-ins.

DECEMBER

Trio of banks join State Street to service BlackRock’s iShares BNY Mellon, Citi and JP Morgan have joined State Street in servicing BlackRock’s $2.3 trillion (£1.74 trillion) iShares. The banks will act as post-trade service providers for the asset manager’s US-domiciled exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

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