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RECENT CUSTODY ACQUISITIONS ANNOUNCEMENTS
Custody acquisitions are rare – particularly global custody deals – and following the spate of M & A pre-financial crisis where State Street, BNY and Chase were particularly active, deals dried up. However, there has been a sprinkling of custody moves made in recent years. Here’ s a quick list in order of announcements:
CACEIS – RBC Investor Services( Europe) 2022 CACIES continued its run of custody acquisitions with the addition of RBC Investor Services’ business in Europe, which significantly bolstered its fund administration assets and propelled it into a new tier of securities services providers in Europe. The integration was completed in 2024.
Standard Chartered – RBC I & TS( Hong Kong) 2022 Standard Chartered agreed to takeover
RBC Investor & Treasury Services’ trustee and domestic asset servicing business in Hong Kong in January 2022. The RBC Hong Kong business provided trustee, fund administration, custody and transfer agency services to MPF schemes, ORSO schemes, as well as other Hong Kong and offshore investment funds.
State Street – BBH * 2021 The blockbuster acquisition that never was. The deal that had the whole industry talking stuttered to an anti-climactic end as mounting signs that the agreement wouldn’ t be finalised eventually proved true as regulators scuppered the deal at the eleventh hour.
Citi – RBC Investor Services( Australia) 2020 RBC Investor Services’ global retrenchment to focus on domestic clients in Canada started by selling its Australian custody business to Citi. In a fiercely competitive market, the assets were a boost to Citi in its bid to cement its position as a top three servicer in Australia.
CACEIS – Santander 2019 Credit Agricole and Santander announced in 2019 the merging of their custody and asset servicing businesses into one combined unit, with an aim to compete on a global scale. Credit Agricole’ s CACEIS subsequently joined with Santander Securities Services( S3) in Spain and Latin America. Interestingly, Credit Agricole acquired Santander’ s remaining 30.5 % stake in CACEIS in December last year, bringing its ownership of the asset servicer to 100 %.
CACEIS – Kas Bank 2019 French asset servicer CACEIS agreed to acquire Dutch custodian KAS Bank for ¤ 188 million in February 2019, enabling it to expand its services to local pension funds and insurance companies. The acquisition increased CACEIS’ assets under custody and administration( AUC / A) and expanded its market coverage in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
* Deal did not compete.
Spring 2025 globalcustodian. com 21