The start of September always means one thing: it is the end of the summer. As many within the securities services industry return from their holidays and catch-up on emails, Global Custodian has been hard at work gathering all of the top news and people moves. For those needing a summary of all that has happened over Europe and the US’ sunny months, here is everything you need to know:
State Street acquires key ETF client assets from BNY Mellon
State Street won the exchange traded fund (ETF) assets of VanEck Associates from rival BNY Mellon. VanEck Associates decided to transition the assets as it looks to consolidate its assets held under custody with a single provider.
Deutsche Bank transitions leadership of securities services to New York
Deutsche Bank’s new global head of securities services will be located in New York after the German group was announced that Fiona Gallagher will leave in October to join Wells Fargo after just over a year in the role. Michaela Ludbrook will assume leadership of Deutsche Bank’s global securities services business within Global Transaction Banking (GTB) with immediate effect.
Regulators delay final phase to uncleared margin rules
A potential ‘big bang’ of buy-side firms being swept into the upcoming initial margin rules for non-cleared derivatives was given a vital delay until September 2021. The Basel Committee and IOSCO agreed to an extension of one year for the final implementation phase of the margin requirements, which would have enforced thousands of asset managers, hedge funds and insurers that had derivatives of a notional value exceeding €8 billion to comply with the rules from September 2020.
Citi responds to industry pressures by combining equities, prime and securities services business
Citi will merge its equities, prime brokerage and securities services businesses into a new division, as it looks to combat increased industry and client pressures. Citi will combine the equities and prime, futures and securities services (PFSS) businesses to provide a full coverage of trading, electronic execution, financing, clearing, custody and fund services all under one house.
BNP Paribas Securities Services expands front-to-back offering to hedge funds
BNP Paribas Securities Services is set to offer a full front-to-back office service to its hedge fund manager clients through a unique partnership with financial services technology vendor Broadridge. The custodian will utilise Broadridge’s Portfolio Master, which combines order management, portfolio management and risk management into a single application, giving it a range of new front-office capabilities alongside its custody and fund administration services.
Deutsche Bank targets end-of-year transition of prime brokerage unit to BNP Paribas
Deutsche Bank is aiming to finalise the transition of its prime brokerage unit to BNP Paribas by the end of the year. The top brass of the German bank signalled on its second quarter earnings call that it has made progress in the potential transfer of their prime brokerage balances, electronic technology and staff to BNP Paribas.
BNP Paribas to cut 500 jobs across securities services in France
BNP Paribas Securities Services is planning to cut 500 jobs across France within the next three years, as it looks to reduce costs and increase competitiveness. The job cuts would be implemented without forced redundancies, as part of the bank’s employment and career management agreement.
Northern Trust rolls out machine learning tech for securities lending
Northern Trust has developed a new pricing engine by utilising machine learning and advanced statistical technology in a bid to drive securities lending revenues. By using a hybrid cloud platform for highly efficient processing of data, Northern Trust will leverage a new algorithm that identifies strategic market data points from multiple asset classes and regions to project the demand for equities in the securities lending market.
BNY Mellon introduces round-the-clock global distribution services for Irish ETFs
BNY Mellon has introduced extended dealing hours for Irish-domiciled exchange traded funds (ETFs) to enable global distribution of the products. Known as 24×5 ETF dealing, BNY Mellon has increased dealing hours to ETF issuers by using its transfer agency hubs in Singapore and New York. This will allow issuers to deal Irish UCITS ETFs from Monday morning in Singapore all the way through to Friday afternoon in New York.
New DLT-based CSD goes live in France with custodian backing
A new French-based central securities depository (CSD) using distributed ledger technology (DLT) has gone live with the help of a handful of custodians and issuing paying agents. ID2S has successfully commenced live operations with NowCP, a new digital platform for issuing and trading commercial paper, backed by CACEIS, Credit Agricole Corporate and investment Bank, Orange Bank and Natixis as participants.