Custody is dead. Long live custody. The results are in and, predictably, market observers are focused on the wrong thing. First things first: the banks that have a serious custody/inserv business did well in 2021, generally reporting good revenue growth against the continuing backdrop of low, zero or negative interest rates. Can you hear the…
Category: Analysis
Why Diversity Isn’t Always All-Inclusive – Stephen Doyle has a powerful message for proponents of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
“The good news is that you didn’t have a stroke. The bad news is it looks like you might have Parkinson’s Disease.” These were the words uttered by my neurologist almost five years ago. Since that day (which is forever etched in my memory), I have learnt that my neurologist was correct. I did in…
Something in the Air
Were you surprised by BlackRock’s selection of its new providers? You shouldn’t have been, if you’ve been paying attention for the last five years. When you’re on a winning streak, the best thing you can do is to keep on doing the same things you’ve been doing that helped you to win in the first…
You Might Think – State Street & BBH are more compatible than you might think.
Well, that didn’t age well. Barely a month after I argued that BBH’s investor services business should remain independent, it goes and does a USD3.5bn deal with State Street. Whilst the counterparties might hope that I would entitle this article “Stairway to Heaven”, it’s probably fairer to call it “You Might Think”, and here’s why.…
The Song Remains The Same – the market needs Brown Brothers Harriman to remain independent. Here’s why.
Did you, like me, have to stifle a yawn when you read the “news” that BBH had been in talks with BNP Paribas Securities Services about a possible merger? “Here we go again,” was my initial reaction. Those of us who have been in and around the industry for more years than we care to…
CHANGING LANES – Custody banks are still big players in the M&A space – it’s just their focus that has changed.
Who remembers when The Bank of New York bought a 4.9pct stake in what was then KAS-Associate in 2001? At a time when BNY was buying almost indiscriminately, it looked as if KAS would be yet another deal. But it didn’t turn out that way, and KAS had to wait until 2019 to be rescued…
More than a Feeling – Boston’s inserv powerhouse wins client validation
19APR21: Oops – something went wrong! Surely it wasn’t meant to be like this. After three years of its competitors claiming that State Street’s acquisition of Charles River meant that it was no longer committed to open architecture, an inconvenient truth emerged: State Street can walk and chew gum at the same time. The evidence…
Finish What You Started – why 2021 could be even better than 2020
First, the boring bit – some facts. 2020 was a record year: most reported mandates, M&A transactions, and people moves since I began recording them in 1999. The WFH culture certainly didn’t stop inserv providers from building their businesses, nor their clients from launching new products. Of the 180 reported mandates, 39 were related to…
TALKING IN YOUR SLEEP: ISSA claims to offer thought leadership, but its latest report is flawed and misinformed.
ISSA – the Zurich-based International Securities Services Association – is a sponsored talking shop. With a grab bag membership of global and local custodians, CSDs, exchanges and tech companies, it has always struggled to define its raison d’être. Its achievements are modest, and much of the valuable work it might have taken on has instead…
Eruption – October 2020
ERUPTION (Eddie Van Halen RIP) Custodians respond to the new normal – and it’s working. 13 October 2020: Welcome to our world, you could hear the Europeans and Japanese muttering under their breath as the U.S. banks began to confront the reality of a long-term low/no interest rate environment. But, for the trust banks at…