The asset servicing landscape, due to the nature of the business, remains the domain of large global players, with broad networks and sophisticated technological capabilities. Leveraging economies of scale and global platforms, global custodians are well positioned to implement new regulatory requirements coming from the US and to harvest new
opportunities in the ever more globalized industry.

Best in Asset Servicing
Nominees:
BNY Mellon, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Northern Trust, State Street

2014 winner: BNY Mellon

BNY Mellon, The Asset’s winner in this broad category, is the world’s largest custodian with US$28.5 trillion assets under custody or administration. Throughout the year, it continued investing in innovation and expanding its business in Asia. It opened a new foreign exchange dealing room in Singapore to serve the needs of the region. In November 2014, it established an innovation centre in California’s Silicon Valley, in order to explore emerging technologies and identify new ventures.

2014 was a very successful year for Citi. Norway’s oil fund, the world’s largest sovereign fund, chose Citi to provide custody services for its US$865 billion portfolio, citing the custodian’s global reach and its presence in new frontier markets. Alibaba Group selected the bank as depositary for its US$25 billion IPO, which was the largest DR offering and biggest IPO in history.

Deutsche Bank had a stellar year in 2014, growing its asset servicing business in the region by 49% as measured by AUC. The bank expanded its QFII and RQFII models to support stock index futures trading, implemented support for investors under India’s foreign portfolio investors scheme, and integrated its execution and custody services. Thanks to investment in technology, it now offers 98% straight-through processing.

HSBC had a successful year, with almost 400 new deals in Asia in 2014. Present in 17 countries in the region, it continued to expand its business in China, where it was granted an onshore insurance custody licence, and in India, where it became the first custodian licenced to support the new foreign portfolio investor scheme. In Hong Kong, HSBC implemented its unique Custody Plus solution to support Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect. It also expanded its back office and securities services system into Australia and Japan.

Northern Trust expanded its business in Australia in 2014 by implementing custody solutions for superannuation funds. It also expanded its offer in China with solutions for hedge funds participating in QDLP program. It launched a new hedge fund administration platform to deliver middle office derivatives trading solution for sovereign wealth fund clients.

State Street continued to build on its 32-year presence in Apac and its strength in servicing exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in 2014. It opened a new office in Shanghai, adding to its existing 11 operation centres in Asia. The custody and asset servicing specialist enhanced the services it provides to offshore funds, now counting 60 clients. It built up its transfer agency services, by launching new products and implemented an RQFII joint service model with China Construction Bank.

Best Custodian – Overall
Nominees:
Citi, HSBC, Northern Trust

2014 winner: No winner

Citi has a global network of 62 branches and is present in 16 countries in Asia. It claims 15% of market share in asset servicing in the region. In Hong Kong, the bank won mandates from AIA Pension Trust in Hong Kong and from BlackRock, for the asset manager’s new Hong Kong Umbrella Trust. Thanks to these new mandates, Citi’s assets under custody in Apac grew by 19% in 2014, and now account for 13% of the company’s global AUC.
HSBC’s worldwide custodian network reaches 90 markets. Its Asian hub-and-spokes model is centred around the hub in Hong Kong, which caters to clients in the region. HSBC’s custodian business grew by 100% since 2010. In 2014, it grew its market share in insurance, and now services 22 large companies. The bank also services 17 central banks and sovereign wealth funds in Asia.

In 2014 , Northern Trust enhanced collateral management and liquidity solutions for clients throughout the region. These initiatives helped Northern Trust secure three new mandates in Australia, including an AU$20 billion (US$15.5 billion) mandate from Government Employees Superannuation Board.

Best Global Custodian
Nominees:
BNY Mellon, Citi, HSBC, Northern Trust, State Street

2014 winner: State Street
BNY Mellon services securities in 100 markets. It dominates the market in American and global depositary receipts and offshore RMB bonds. In 2014, it secured, among others, the first ADR mandate from Malaysia. It acted as trustee, transfer agent, custodian and depositary for Alibaba Group’s US$8 billion bond issue.

Citi is expanding its presence in China, where it has entered in partnership with Guotai Junan Securities. It also focused on the insurance market where it now has 80% market share in QDII flows. In 2014, the bank won a $19 billion custody mandate from QBE Insurance Australia and a $1 billion mandate from Samsung Securities.

HSBC continued to invest in its global abilities in 2014, by launching a new insurance support model providing a round-the-clock global service. It was the first bank providing sub-custody services for the new London and France RQFIIs, and today serves as a custodian for approximately 40% of newly approved global QFII and RQFII quota.

Northern Trust expanded in South Korea, Philippines and Malaysia, and is now present in nine locations in Apac. In 2014, it opened a new processing and back-office operations centre in Manila, to complement its existing centre in Bangalore. The bank won 15 new mandates in 2014.

State Street, who won in this category in 2014, operates in 29 countries, with a particularly strong presence in Taiwan, where it services more than 50% of the Securities Investment Trust Enterprise funds with investment overseas, and in Japan, where it services 90% of foreign trust banks. Its AUC grew by 16.1% in 2014.

Best Subcustodian
Nominees:
Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered

2014 winner: HSBC

Citi’s direct custody and clearing business in Asia grew by 20% from 2013, where it won 138 custody and clearing mandates. It now boasts a 50% market share in cash equity clearing in the region. In 2014 Citi won a large mandate from its competitor Morgan Stanley in India, which resulted in the largest direct custody migration of 50 accounts from six entities.

Deutsche Bank continued to build its presence in the region’s local markets. It was the first to offer account operator services for Formosa Bonds in Taiwan. The bank was granted a Designated Depository Participant role for foreign portfolio investors in India. It also introduced Sharia-compliant services encompassing custody, fund administration and cash.

HSBC, the winner in this category, received 106 new subcustody mandates in Asia in 2014, focusing on broker dealers. The bank recorded highest AUC growth in Australia, Malaysia, Philippines and Korea. It continued to build up its Brokers Outsourcing Securities Services platform, launched in 2013, by expanding it to Australia and Japan.

Standard Chartered is present in 40 markets across Asia. In 2014, the bank implemented its new custody and clearing platform and operating model in 32 of those markets, to deliver advanced automation in a single global platform. A pioneer in RMB internationalization, it launched new cross-border custody offerings for RQFII and QFII channels.

Best Fund Administrator – Alternatives
Nominees:
Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC

2014 winner: Citi

While the hedge fund industry saw few new fund launches in 2014, Citi, the winner in this category, has been successful in winning several mandates away from its competitors in Hong Kong and Singapore. Such take-away mandates included OCP Asia, Orchard Global and Kimco. These successes boosted Citi’s AUM by 21%, while its Asian AUM grew by 23%.
Deutsche Bank is present in nine markets in the region, providing services to hedge funds and private equity funds, among others. It won 13 new deals in Apac in 2014, growing its AUC/AUM by 31%. The bank’s investments in technology focused on automation of operations and regulatory matters.

HSBC has been in the alternative fund business for over 46 years. It is now the largest player in this space in Apac, servicing 316 funds. It opened its fifth service centre in Guangzhou bolstering its dominant position in servicing clients focused on China.

Best Fund Administrator – Retail Funds
Nominees:
Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered

2014 winner: HSBC
Deutsche Bank established a separate fund services pillar, recognizing the importance of this segment in the company’s strategy. It introduced Fatca-related services and developed custody, fund administration, and cash services for Sharia-compliant funds. In 2014, its retail funds business grew by 51% measured by AUA.

HSBC is another fund administration giant in the region, with presence in 12 markets, and the winner in this category. The bank services more than 50% of retail funds in Hong Kong and more than 60% in Singapore. In 2014, it won mandates to service the first ETF launched in Philippines and the first index futures ETF in Hong Kong.

Standard Chartered Bank has been providing fund administration services for retail funds in India, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. The bank’s relationship with international and local asset management companies, investment advisory companies and asset gatherers, such as insurance companies, is one of the strongest in the industry.

Best in Securities Lending
Nominees:
BNY Mellon, Citi, State Street

2014 winner: BNY Mellon

In 2014, BNY Mellon, the previous year’s winner in this category, consolidated its securities lending capabilities within the newly formed BNY Mellon Markets Group, encompassing foreign exchange, capital markets and prime brokerage services. It has expanded its fixed income lending capabilities in Hong Kong and Japan, and added Taiwan to its equity program.
Citi has incorporated its securities lending division within the larger prime finance arm, and offers its large institutional clients the opportunity to access revenue on their portfolio. Citi has the widest geographic coverage of any securities lender in Asia with a 35% market share in Taiwan and Korea, and 45% in Malaysia. Its quantitative analytics tools set it apart from competitors.

Active in 35 markets globally, State
Street expanded its Asia offering by rolling out its Enhanced Custody servicing platform for Apac in 2014. It expanded borrowing counterparty base, broadened the types of securities available for borrowing and added new collateral types,
in particular to include Japanese government and convertible bonds.

Best in Collateral Management
Nominees:
BNY Mellon, Citi

2014 winner: BNY Mellon

BNY Mellon’s collateral management business, with 18 new clients in 2014, is particularly strong in Japan, where it grew 100% during the year. The bank, who won The Asset Triple A award in this category in 2014, won 90 new tri-party deals, including JPY 630 billion in its trust-intermediated tri-party structure. Its program now support offshore RMB cash.

In 2014, Citi created the Investor Services division, merging Collateral Services with Futures and OTC Clearing business. The bank expanded its Open Collateral solution, which now covers 19 mandates, including its first client in Japan. Citi won business from Ageas Insurance and China Citic Bank Intl (both in Hong Kong), growing its transaction volume in the region by 48%.

Best in Corporate Trust
Nominees:
BNY Mellon, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC

2014 winner: Citi

BNY Mellon won a number of significant deals in Apac in 2014. In addition to the Alibaba bond deal, it handled Bank of China’s issue of 40 billion renminbi offshore preference shares, the first of its kind, and bond issues by firms like Lenovo, Bharti Airtel, and Republic of Korea. In Indonesia, it won mandates for the government’s debut 11 billion notes and its US$1.5 billion sukuk.
The trust business of Citi, the category winner, grew by 25% in 2014, following a 24% growth in 2013. It supported British Gas’ divestment of its Indian subsidiary, the sale of Danone Dairy Indonesia and Moody’s acquisition of Amba Investment Services in India. It has also dominated the growing securitization market in Korea. This growth was supported by investment in technology, notably the new debt liability management portal launched in 2014.

Deutsche Bank is one of the largest providers of trustee and agency services in the region, covering seven countries. It grew its presence in China by 30% in 2014, thanks to 420 new mandates. It provides services for 21% of 2014 total bond issuance in Apac markets where it operates. Notably, it closed Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s inaugural US$1 billion sukuk issue.

With more than 100 years in the corporate trust business, HSBC managed to grow its AUC by 23% in the region in 2014. It handled the first RMB bonds cleared via MyClear in Malaysia and was the first agent to administer receivables-backed loan programs in Singapore. HSBC recorded an 18.7% growth of dim sum bonds under administration.

Best DR Bank
Nominees:
Citi, Deutsche Bank

2014 winner: Deutsche Bank

Citi was the depositary of choice for the US$25 billion, NYSE-listed, IPO of Alibaba Group, the largest IPO in history. In addition, the bank led half of the top ten DR capital offerings in Asia in 2014. The bank’s market share accounts for 40% of the global DR capital and 69% of Asia DR capital raised since 2010.

Deutsche Bank, the winner of this category in 2014, is the second largest DR bank globally with more than 1000 DR programmes. In APAC, it has 44% market share of large cap business. In 2014, it closed the JD.com IPO, the largest DR IPO on the NASDAQ exchange. The bank’s DR business grew by 61%, measured by AUM.

••••••••••••••••

Custody Specialist Awards

HSBC wins the Custody Specialist distinction in three categories: Global Custodians, Broker Dealers and Middle East. It won 37 new broker dealer clearing mandates in the region and recorded approximately 10% annual growth over the last 5 years, both in transactions and AUC. The bank’s investments in technology included adoption of ISO 20022 standards in Japan and Australia and adding both countries to its Broker Outsourcing Securities Services platform.
HSBC’s assets in Middle East grew by 12% in 2014, despite weaker market, while transactions grew by 100%. HSBC maintains a regional team larger than any of its competitors, covering nine countries, with market share between 50% and 100% in each.
Northern Trust takes the Custody Specialist Award in the Institutional category. It continued to invest into data solutions for institutional investors, focusing on data transparency and reporting tools for asset managers, as well as a new analytics solution that allows mobile access to business data.
BNP Paribas wins the Custody Specialist Award – Fund Managers, for its initiatives in Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, Shariah-compliant global custody solutions, RQFII solutions for Ucits and Asean fund passporting scheme.
Standard Chartered is recognized as Custody Specialist for Africa. The bank entered the region in 2010 and now supports 18 markets. In 2014 it expanded its reach by acquiring and migrating ABSA’s South African custody and trustee business.

Mandates of the year

BNY Mellon wins the Best Corporate Trust Mandate for its role in Alibaba Group’s landmark issue of US$8 billion six-part bond. The transaction was oversubscribed by nearly 7x and was the biggest trade out of Asia in history.
Deutsche Bank wins a “highly commended” distinction in the Corporate Trust category for its role supporting the inaugural sukuk issue by Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
Deutsche Bank wins Best Custody Mandate for its combined multi-currency currency account end-to-end solution for Maybank in Singapore. It enabled straight-through-processing for Maybank and Maybank Kim Eng Securities, for cost savings, efficiency gains and reduction of operational risk.
Citi wins the Best DR Mandate of the year for its handling of the US$25 billion IPO of Alibaba Group, priced on September 18, 2014 and listed on NYSE. It was a history-making, largest-ever IPO, an event of the year, which helped the Chinese internet and e-commerce behemoth burst onto the world’s scene. Citi developed a customized solution to handle the size of the offering, and the complexities of the vast pre-IPO shareholder base.
Deutsche Bank wins the highly-commended distinction in Best DR Mandate for its role in the DR IPO of JD.com, the largest of its kind on NASDAQ. The bank not only successfully launched the DR under pressure of time, but also facilitated quick inclusion of JD.com in the NASDAQ 100 index.
Deutsche Bank wins the Best Fund Administration Mandate – Alternative Investments award for its mandate from Macquarie Asia Infrastructure Fund in Singapore. The bank successfully handled challenges of complex fund structure, involving special purpose vehicles in different countries, while providing innovative, high-quality services at highly-competitive rates.
Deutsche Bank wins the Best Fund Administration Mandate – Retail Funds award for its cash service and fund administration mandate from Schroder Investment Management in Taiwan. This mandate represents the first instance where a Taiwanese fund manager would fully outsource its fund accounting to a third party, enabling them to focus on their core business.
Standard Chartered wins the “highly commended” distinction in this category for its mandate for Krung Thai Asset Management. Its five-year exclusive fund administration service for foreign investment funds was a first of its kind tailor-made solution for multi-class funds.
BNP Paribas wins the award for the Best Global Custody Mandate for its third party clearing, local and global custody solution for Liquidnet in the Hong Kong and US markets.

Regional Specialist Awards

HSBC wins a full sweep of The Asset Triple A awards in the Regional Specialist category: Best Transfer Agent, Best QFII Custodian and Best RQFII Custodian.
The bank is a leader in both QFII and RQFII custody, with over 35% and over 41% market share in QFII and RQFII quota under custody, respectively. It was appointed the first bank to service newly allocated RQFII quota in the UK, France and Korea.
With local presence in seven Apac markets, HSBC has managed to grow its transfer agent business by 12%in 2014. It launched Asean CIS funds distribution in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and won over 160 new fund mandates in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and other countries in the region.

Best Subcustodian – by country

HSBC retained its position as a powerhouse in the subcustody business in the region. It wins this category in 11 out of 15 markets: Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand. Deutsche Bank is recognized as the winner in India and Korea, and as a “rising star” in China. Standard Chartered wins this category in Pakistan and Vietnam.

Best Domestic Custodian – by country

Domestic custodians service local asset owners, thus this is the only category where big global custodians may be at a disadvantage. We see a bigger variety of winners with Deutsche Bank winning award in India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, while HSBC triumphed in Hong Kong and Korea. In other markets the winners were: Bank of China in China, Maybank in Malaysia, DBS in Singapore, CTBC Bank in Taiwan, SCB in Thailand and Standard Chartered in Vietnam. The latter wins also the “rising star” recognition in India.

Best Fund Administrator – by country

In the retail funds category, Deutsche Bank retains its award for best fund administrator in India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan, and for the first time earns it in Sri Lanka. In India, in particular, its AUM grew by 37%, and the bank transformed its unit into a regional centre of excellence for fund accounting. In Indonesia, Deutsche bank holds a 34.8% market share, while in Malaysia it remains the sole provider of registrar and transfer agency services. In Sri Lanka, it has a 90% market share in mutual funds. The bank’s Taiwan AUA grew by 176% during the year.
HSBC continues to dominate this category in Hong Kong, Philippines and Thailand, and this year wins this category also in Singapore. HSBC is one of the largest fund administrators in Hong Kong, servicing more than 750 funds, with more than 40% market share in RQFII funds, over 50% of locally domiciled ETFs, retail funds and REITs. It is a market leader in the Philippines, where it grew its AUA by 42% in 2014 and won seven new fund administration mandates.
The bank is the largest fund administrator in Singapore, servicing 260 funds and over 65% share of the local Authorized Unit Trust market. In Thailand, the bank’s AUA and AUC increased by 20% in 2014 thanks to new mandates and a 100% retention rate.
Standard Chartered is recognized as the Best Fund Administrator in South Korea and Vietnam. In both countries, the bank recorded substantial growth of the business, thanks to its service quality and engagement in markets advocacy.

Best Prime Broker

In the new category of Best Prime Broker by country, The Asset recognizes SCB Securities as the winner in Thailand, for the impressive growth of its business and product innovation, reflected in its fast climb in the ranks of the country brokers.