Americas

Frontier markets in the Americas are relatively under-represented in this year ’ s ABFM survey . Although responses were recorded for Argentina , Bermuda , Costa Rica , Panama and Uruguay , these collectively accounted for only 4 % of responses across the survey as a whole . Of these , Argentina accounted for just over half . Service providers represented in the response pool included Citi , HSBC , Banco Itau and Banco BCT as well as two ICSDs , though their service offerings are clearly intermediated at a local level . That said , average regional category scores are similar to last year ’ s overall with some improvement in Asset Servicing , up from Satisfactory to Good and Technology dropping down from Good to Satisfactory . Pricing has also dropped further down the Satisfactory scale , suggesting that clients , while not disgruntled , may be looking for better news on fee levels in the year ahead . “ They need to do more to reduce costs ,” says one global custodian of its providers in the region . There is little other client comment on the region with one respondent suggesting that its levels of activity are not sufficient to express a robust view of the service received .