Mutual funds aren’t new and neither are ETFs, but the conversion from one to the other is a recent phenomenon gaining momentum among asset managers.

When people speak about transfer agency, they often use words like ‘overlooked’ and ‘underrated’, and for a long time they wouldn’t have been far off the mark. However, those close to market now paint a different picture. Emerging technologies, value-added services and a more global proposition have given the industry a new buzz and a potentially new look for the future.

The global ETF market has seen extraordinary growth since its inception almost 30 years ago, with the range of ETF products growing increasingly diverse and complex. In Europe, a high rate of settlement failures and general inefficiency in the market has meant there has been a drive to bring more ETF trades through central clearing, providing greater risk mitigation and operational efficiency. But is enough being done to facilitate that switch?

As large investors look to obtain cost savings and operational efficiencies – yet at the same time – maximise performance returns amid the challenging macroeconomic environment, a handful of extremely large institutions are giving serious thought to insourcing private asset investment activities.

The obscure functionality developed by T2S could potentially help settlement efficiency rates improve by up to 5%, but it needs to be adopted by all players in the custody chain to work effectively.

The sale of Rosbank adds Russia to a growing list of country exits for Societe Generale Securities Services, with industry experts believing the custodian is now at a critical juncture for a business that requires scale, investment and a strategic growth focus.

Reports say a handful of major banks are mulling over the idea of accepting synthetic crypto assets as collateral in exchange for providing cash loans to institutional clients. Charles Gubert examines whether using crypto-assets as collateral is the future of banking or a disaster in the making.

An industry traditionally known for being quite opaque, hedge funds and private equity firms have become increasingly transparent with their investors and regulators since the financial crisis. As competition for client mandates intensified and regulators clamped down on shadow banking activities, alternative asset managers had little option other than to be more open about their strategies and operations. While the industry has made huge progress in terms of its overall transparency, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) argues more work is still needed.

The average tenure of a chief executive officer is said to be around five years, so when BNY Mellon has had three leaders in that space of time, it’s time to ask questions around why this carousel at the top has occurred and go inside the story of the bank’s most recent CEOs.

Drawing comparisons with some of the most rigorous and pressing regulations in recent memory, Phase 6 of uncleared margin rules is set to hit 1,100 buy-side firms. While September might seem a way off, as ever with regulatory preparations, firms are being urged to act now around controls, documentation, testing, and data flows. Wesley Bray looks at the latest round of this regulation and how firms can prepare.

Partnering with State Street and Vanguard to use blockchain and smart contracts to execute a live FX trade could be the tipping point in a long game to bring distributed ledger technology to the doorsteps of the world’s largest custodians and asset managers.

JP Morgan has implemented a strategy under new leadership amid a convergence of securities finance and collateral management to cement its position in the market, proving that innovation in the space isn’t confined to FinTechs.

Peer-to-peer repo had a breakout year in 2021 with conditions playing perfectly into its hands, but how will it fit in with the overall repo market and other types of securities lending transactions in the future?

The implementation of the final leg of the Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR) has been nothing short of tortuous. Despite the industry’s relief following the indefinite postponement of the mandatory buy-in regime, the imposition of cash penalties for trade settlement fails is still happening and could pose problems for market participants.

Since the early days of global custody, Citi has followed a different path to service provision, leveraging its extensive global network. With the evolution of the industry to a more expansive securities services framework, how has Citi confronted the challenges that its peers have faced? Is its model still a differentiator?