Meaningful data products: Custodians enhance their solutions

Client requirements are fundamentally changing, and this is forcing custodian banks to think more laterally about how they deliver services to customers. Increasingly, custodians are scoping out new ways of sharing meaningful and thoughtful data sets with clients as seamlessly as possible through an array of different transmission methods, including application programming interfaces (APIs) and SWIFT, among others. This paper outlines some of the data solutions that custodians are developing, together with how clients are benefiting from them in areas such as settlement efficiency, market access, and environment, social, governance (ESG) investing. The paper also notes, however, that data solutions are not without their challenges. Custodians’ banks will need to ensure that the data they disseminate to clients is accurate, secure, and is not so detailed that it completely overwhelms the end users. Elsewhere, the absence of comprehensive data regulation has prompted some market participants to push for the adoption of data standards, but this is not straightforward. A balance is, however, required on standardisation so that it does not undermine innovation, a theme that the paper explores in depth. This paper is essential reading for market leaders in the custody world who are looking to strengthen and deepen their data capabilities for clients.