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(June-2004) Custodians hitting the right mark
While there have been some changes with respect to custodial services in Australia over the past 12 months, the Global Custody Survey 2004 published in mid-May paints the picture of a remarkably stable international environment.
The survey, undertaken by the UK-based Global Investor magazine, says RBC Global Services and JPMorgan have been voted by respondents as the best global custodians.
The 17th of its type, the survey gathered information from more than 1200 respondents from the institutional fund management, mutual fund management, insurance and pension fund sectors.
According to the survey, RBC Global Services received the highest score on average in the unweighted rankings, while JPMorgan received the highest scores in the weighted rankings (where clients’ replies are weighted according to the size of the account).
The survey analysis says that the 11 banks qualifying for the survey together administer $US75.13 trillion in assets for the world’s leading investors.
“Those investors are evidently happy with the service they are being provided, with the average unweighted score, at 69.1, at its highest level since 1990,” the survey says.
“To put that into context, only one custodian, last year’s winner Investors Bank and Trust, passed that score last year,” it says.
Looking at the results for 2004, the survey says that Investors Bank and Trust again finished strongly in both the unweighted and weighted rankings, but were beaten by a superb score from RBC Global Services, and the return to form of JPMorgan, the regular winner in the weighted rankings.
“RBC’s success has been built around new technology enhancements in the last year and a continued focus on client service,” it says.
The survey says JPMorgan had a strong year, with big outsourcing wins from Morley Fund Management, ISIS Asset Management and Royal Long Asset Management.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
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