Assets under custody reach $4.7t

Clearstream, Netwealth and Citigroup are the winners in the custody space, all increasing their assets under custody by 20% or more in the last six months.

According to the Australian Custodial Services Association (ACSA), total assets under custody rose by 5.8% to $4.7 trillion in the six months to 31 December, 2021.

Asset servicing providers settled over 13 million trades during the six months, this equated to approximately 101,000 settled trades per day on behalf of clients.

J.P. Morgan held the largest proportion of assets under custody at $1.1 trillion, the only company to hold more than $1 trillion.

This was followed by Citigroup with $823 billion, a 22% rise from the end of the previous quarter, while Northern Trust had $730 billion.

Clearstream and Netwealth, while smaller in assets under custody, also saw growth of 25% and 20% respectively during the period to reach $106 billion and $56 billion.

ACSA chief executive, David Travers, who took over from Robert Brown last year, said the result occurred on the back of strong financial markets in the second half of the year and confidence in the key services provided by the securities services industry”.

Australian assets increased by 6.1% while offshore assets increased by 5.4%, which compared to 0.4% for assets held onshore for foreign investors. 

Travers commented: “While part of this differential is the result of currency valuation changes and buoyancy in traded securities markets, it can also be traced to the long-term trend of institutional investors repositioning portfolios so as to seek balanced returns.

“There was also onboarding of new custody mandates on the part of some members evident in the relative movements during the half,” he said.

“Looking ahead to 2022, we expect our members’ focus will centre on the response to changing regulatory data reporting requirements, the evolving role of custodians in supporting institutional involvement in digital assets including cryptocurrencies, and the implementation of the ASX’s DLT-based replacement for CHESS.”

Total Assets Under Custody for Australian Investors (AUD Billion)

Rank	Provider	30-Jun-21	31-Dec-21	% change
1	Related News: Super funds deliver stronger returns in February AustralianSuper on track to deploy £18 billion in UK by end of decade J.P. Morgan	$1,068.3	$1,109.9	3.9%
2	VIEW ALL View all Citigroup	$673.3	$823.1	22.2%
3	Northern Trust	$722.0	$730.0	1.1%
4	State Street	$544.6	$580.5	6.6%
5	NAB Asset Servicing	$576.8	$579.3	0.4%
6	BNP Paribas	$509.1	$494.5	-2.9%
7	HSBC Bank	$216.4	$219.7	1.5%
8	Clearstream	$84.8	$106.5	25.6%
9	Netwealth	$47.1	$56.6	20.2%
10	BNY Mellon	$27.2	$30.5	12.3%
	Total	$4,469.5	$4,730.5	5.8%

Source: Australian Custodial Services Association – Industry Statistics December 2021, Table 1