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Germany
BNP Paribas Securities Services
The Frankfurt operation of the French bank attracted more
responses than any other provider in in Germany, but the strong
upward momentum of 2017 has dissipated. Yet the strengths
identified by clients are intriguing. “BNP Paribas always seen to
be at the forefront of innovation and the RM has been excellent
in presenting the changes and what this would mean for post
trade operations,” writes a client, who also appreciates a willing-
ness to tailor services to their needs.
As the performance of the bank in relationship management
indicates, the appetite not only to innovate but to talk to clients
about innovation is winning BNP Paribas plaudits far beyond
the narrow confines of new products and services alone. The
apparent weakness on technology is almost certainly a short-
term hiccough. “The beginning of 2018 was challenging as BNP
Paribas seemed to have numerous IT issues” writes a client. “As
we move to Q4, we are no longer experiencing such issues.”
Deutsche Bank
Frankfurt was long the largest and best-performing operation in
the Deutsche Bank custody and clearing network. A decade and
a half ago, after acquiring the custody arm of Dresdner Bank,
Deutsche was easily the largest provider of custodial services to
inbound business in Germany. The details of the average score
suggest that Deutsche continues to settle trades, safekeep assets
and collect entitlements with metronomic efficiency, and at rea-
sonable prices too. It also ensures its clients’ needs are taken se-
riously by the local regulators, their assets are never put at risk,
and the business will continue even in the face of disaster. What
has gone missing, amid the averages, is the sense that Deutsche
Bank Securities Services Frankfurt is something special. Cer-
tainly, the scoring of the human side of the business suggests the
custody group is not immune to the wider travails of the bank.
“Big turnover of dedicated RM,” as one client notes.
Others
The German market continues to support a number of other
providers. Citi continues to offer securities settlement and
custody service in Frankfurt as part of its 14-market network in
Western Europe. After ditching plans to sell the business five
years ago, Commerzbank re-entered the custody business in its
home market, but it is not visible in the survey this year.
French custodian and fund administrator CACEIS inherited a
custody client base when it purchased the custodial arm of HVB
in Munich a decade ago. Though too few of its clients respond-
ed to assess the quality of the services properly, the scores are
excellent. Deutsche Wertpapier Service Bank (DWP), whose
business rests on the solid foundation of managing the securities
accounts of savings, co-operative and private banks in Germany,
continues to attract a small number of responses.
DZ Bank, the central arm of a network of 900 local co-oper-
ative banks in Germany, provides custody services to mutual
funds as well as its shareholders. Clients clearly value the servic-
es but would like more investment in client service and relation-
ship management.
WEIGHTED AVERAGE SCORES
BNP Paribas Deutsche Bank
Market Average Global Average
Market share (% of responses) 53% 47%
Relationship management 5.89 4.75 5.22 5.20
Client service Account management 5.76 5.27 5.35 5.40
5.40 5.33 5.37 5.44
Asset safety 5.93 5.50 5.68 5.68
Risk management 5.29 5.61 5.50 5.46
Liquidity management 4.39 5.56 5.00 4.89
Regulation and compliance 5.85 5.86 5.84 5.64
Innovation 5.96 4.90 5.22 5.18
Asset servicing 4.99 5.26 4.99 5.09
Pricing 4.75 5.08 4.71 4.82
Technology 5.44 4.97 5.18 5.28
Cash management and FX 3.91 4.99 4.44 4.25
Total 5.36 5.24 5.24 5.24
Fall 2018
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