We have sized the custody market and have prepared a series of tables which rank custodians by the size of their assets under custody. To view the tables, select from the links at the top left of this page. Included in the tables is the aggregate value of assets under custody.
SUB-CUSTODY ASSETS?
In the total figure, there is a degree of double-counting with some assets being reported by banks acting in the capacity of sub-custodian (for global custodians) and also by the corresponding global custodians. To deal with this, we accommodate analysis to identify those assets managed directly as custodian -- and those held as sub-custodian.
CUSTODY ASSETS: DOMESTIC AND CROSS-BORDER
Industry practice is to distinguish worldwide custody assets between domestic assets (those held in the home country) and cross-border assets (those held in the rest of the world). We encourage service providers to make this distinction with reference to the home country of each customer rather than that of their own head office or customer service locations.
DRIVERS OF GROWTH
Global custodians are entrusted with the safekeeping and processing of huge volumes of securities. Recent years have seen a dramatic growth in the value of assets under custody. This high growth rate is expected to continue, driven by a combination of global trends:
- investors' growing appetite for cross-border assets, for emerging and exotic markets and for a wider range of financial instruments
- investment managers' and banks' increasing use of global custodians to replace their own networks of local custodians
- in many countries, the state retreating from its role of primary pension provider, causing citizens to invest in defined contribution pensions and mutual funds in record numbers - with custody providers serving the pension funds and mutual funds
- growth in the retail brokerage industry driving demand for clearing and custody services.