Agent Banks in Emerging Markets

The overall score for agent banks in emerging markets has now risen every year since 2021, with the trend showing no signs of abating. In addition, the three highest rated categories this year match the three most critical areas of service provision according to respondents – making it another standout year for providers.

Agent Banks in Frontier Markets

Global Custodian is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, and with this we decided to make some changes to the frontier markets report this year with each country grouped within a region, each region getting a short introduction summarising the findings and these regions broken down into Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. In addition, it was an excellent year for the ABFM survey, with a record number of results coming in from multiple regions.

Agent Banks in Major Markets

For the third year in a row the overall Agent Banks in Major Markets score has increased, along with most of the individual categories, pointing to a real purple patch for the sub-custody industry in the eyes of their clients.

Central and Eastern Europe Domestic Custody

While Central and Eastern Europe is regarded for the sake of convenience as a single region, securities services providers experience different client priorities and requirements in the individual markets.

China Domestic Survey

Exchange Traded Fund Administration Survey

Last year the ETF administration industry celebrated 30 years, and GC Research discussed how the ETF landscape had changed over that time. This year, rather than looking back, the focus is very much on the future.

Greece Domestic Survey

In recent years, Greek custodian banks have been prisoners of the country’s sovereign debt ratings. Until these improve, domestic institutions will be an increasingly important client segment.

Hedge Fund Administration Survey

It has been an exciting 12 months with the global hedge fund industry significantly increasing in size, posting positive performance and returning to net inflows, topped off by these strong set of survey scores.

India Domestic Survey

Domestic Indian institutions rate their securities services providers highly, but not necessarily in the same way as their cross-border counterparts.

Malaysia Domestic Survey

Operational reforms will help local providers meet the service needs of a growing investor base.

Mutual Fund Administration Survey

The fruits of consolidation among mutual fund administrators appear to be a group of service providers able to operate at scale to the growing satisfaction of their diverse client bases.

Outsourced Trading Survey

With an uptick in the number of clients taking part compared to last year, a new and revised methodology and formula introduced, and an average overall score sitting at Very Good, this report will reveal plenty of exciting trends over the next few pages.

Prime Brokerage Survey

Back once again and better than ever, Global Custodian’s 2024 Prime Brokerage survey has had a fantastic year. With a record number of clients participating – up 15% from last year – nearly every provider has seen an uptick in their ratings.

Private Equity Administration

2024 marks a stellar year for scores in the Private Equity Fund Administration survey, as providers secure impressive ratings from clients. The highest we've ever recorded, to be precise.

Singapore Domestic Survey

South Africa Domestic Survey

While domestic institutional clients of South African custodians have a similar overall perception of their service providers to the banks’ foreign clients, there are some intriguing differences at a service category level.

Tri-Party Securities Financing

This year’s survey has been substantially revised to take account of regulatory developments and the engagement of the buy-side.