Our fifth most-read story of the year shifted the focus from market developments to industry excellence, as Global Custodian announced the winners of our annual Leaders in Custody awards at The Savoy in London.
Standard Chartered and SIX led the evening with three awards each, while State Street, BNP Paribas, JP Morgan, Clearstream, Deutsche Bank, Euroclear and Mizuho Bank were among the institutions to secure multiple accolades. The awards recognised outstanding performance across Global Custodian’s Agent Bank surveys, alongside Editors’ Choice, Innovation and Individual honours.
State Street was named Global Custodian of the Year, while Citi received Global Securities Services Provider of the Year. Northern Trust won Deal of the Year for its mandate with Nest, while Digital Asset was crowned Fintech of the Year.
Innovation featured strongly, with recognition for Chainlink, DTCC, Euroclear, Clearstream, and Broadridge. Individual honours went to Emily Portney, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Margaret Harwood-Jones, named Industry Person of the Year.
Our fourth most-read story of the year saw a significant mandate in a key market, with HSBC India appointed as custody and fund accounting partner for Jio BlackRock Asset Management.
The mandate coincided with the launch of Jio BlackRock’s new fund offering, marking a significant milestone for one of the most closely watched joint ventures in India’s financial services landscape. The partnership brought together BlackRock’s global asset management expertise, Jio Financial Services’ domestic reach, and HSBC’s long-established custody and fund administration capabilities in the market.
HSBC said the appointment reflects its commitment to supporting the evolution of India’s rapidly expanding funds industry, where rising retail participation, regulatory reform and digital distribution continue to attract global attention.
Our third most-read story of the year offered readers a detailed look inside BNY’s recent stellar performance, as chief executive Robin Vince lifted the lid on the drivers behind the custodian’s record revenue and assets under custody and administration.
Speaking on the firm’s third-quarter earnings call, Vince pointed to the impact of BNY’s new operating and commercial model, highlighting a sharp increase in cross-selling and faster, more automated client delivery. With 70% of employees now live on the new platform, the transformation is already delivering tangible benefits, even as further gains are expected over the next 12-18 months.
Vince also underscored strong secular growth in ETFs and private markets, with ETF AUC/A up 35% year-on-year and continued momentum across alternatives. Alongside ongoing investment in AI and digital assets, the CEO struck a measured but confident tone on the future.
BNY also continues to invest heavily in AI and digital asset solutions, though Vince remains measured on the outlook for the latter. “We’re playing the long game on digital assets,” he said. “We started this journey really about three years ago, seeing it as a potentially interesting technology. Clearly, it had some very excited fans right at that stage, but it’s built and become a bit more accepted as a mainstream technology.
“It’s very early days – this is a multiyear thing. But we’re positioned for optionality is the way that I would describe it.”
JP Morgan’s appointment of Aman Thind as global head of technology strategy and enterprise architecture in October attracted incredibly strong reader interest on our site, ranking as our second most read story of the year.
Based in London, Thind joined from State Street, where he spent more than seven years in senior technology leadership roles. Most recently, he served as chief technology officer for State Street Alpha, overseeing the firm’s flagship front-to-back investment platform spanning Charles River Development, Alpha Data Platform and Alpha Cloud. He also previously led technology strategy as CTO for State Street Digital Assets and as global chief architect.
At JP Morgan, Thind will play a central role in shaping the bank’s multi-year technology roadmap, strengthening its enterprise architecture framework and driving best practices across the organisation.
With prior experience spanning Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Adobe and Fidelity Investments, the hire resonated with readers as a clear signal of how aggressively tier-one institutions are investing in technology leadership to support scale, innovation and long-term competitiveness.
And drumroll please… Our most read story of the year focused on one of the most significant custody M&A transactions in recent memory, as State Street agreed to acquire Mizuho Group’s global custody business outside Japan. The deal will see State Street add more than $600 billion in assets under custody and administration across Luxembourg and the US, while Mizuho sharpens its focus on domestic custody services.
The transaction marked State Street’s first major re-entry into the custody M&A market since its unsuccessful bid for Brown Brothers Harriman’s investor services business in 2022, underlining a renewed appetite for inorganic growth. For Mizuho, the move reflects a strategic decision to partner with a global custodian of scale as client demands grow increasingly complex.
Executives from both firms emphasised the importance of scale, technology investment and global reach in today’s custody landscape.
“Japan, Luxembourg and the United States are all important markets to State Street. This transaction demonstrates our strong commitment to further accelerating our growth in these markets,” said Stefan Gmür, head of Asia Pacific and head of strategic business growth at State Street.