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Italy
BNP Paribas Securities Services
“Very good relationship since many years,” is how a client sees
his relationship with BNP Paribas Milan. Certainly, the scoring
of the RMs, the client service and the relationship as a whole
leaves no room for doubt on that point. Account management,
settlements, compliance and multiple perspectives on asset
safety all fail to find serious fault. In fact, searching for points of
weakness in a collective verdict this good seems gratuitous, but
they can be found. Asset servicing, notably corporate actions,
saw some late notifications. “We are expecting more pro-activ-
ity from their side,” says a client. Less-than-smooth technology
upgrades were clearly an issue here too, and respondents think
BNP Paribas could do more to help them cut cash and collateral
costs.
Société Générale Securities Services
A dozen years have passed since the French bank acquired 2S
Banca S.p.A in 2006, entrenching Société it in Turin and Milan.
Perceptions of the client-facing staff and the technology could
be better but, apart from a tiresome KYC process and a handful
of calls for more choice and better terms in cash, credit, collater-
al and FX, there are no visible shortcomings.
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche is getting the basics right. Transactions are settling on
time. Entitlements are collected. The technology works for cur-
rent purposes, even if the level of automation could be higher.
Unusually, clients think cash and collateral are well managed.
Confidence in the soundness of the bank, and the safety of the
assets it holds, is reassuringly high. But neither client service nor
relationship management is much admired, clients detect few
signs of innovation, and it will be hard for the business to grow
without lifting investment in people, data and technology.
Intesa Sanpaolo
Intesa, particularly in tandem with Banca IMI, has the potential
to offer a fast, sophisticated and high volume set of clearing,
settlement, securities financing and cash and collateral manage-
ment services to firms trading the cash and derivatives markets
in Italy. But for this set of respondents at least that combination
is not yet their daily reality, account opening apart (“The pro-
cedure is quick”). The details suggest the average relationship
with Intesa is not optimal, and client service fluctuates with
the seniority of the contact. “The team is very experienced and
pro-active to clients,” writes one major client. “Intesa’s RM is
very pro-active and has a professional approach.” But a second
has had “hardly any contact.”
Citi
A shortage of data makes it hard to judge the performance of
what was once a flagship operation in the Citi direct clearing
and custody network of western Europe. What information
there is suggests that the bank is valued mainly for access to
credit and keen pricing, though even these are offset by indica-
tions that fees and spreads could be narrowed further.
WEIGHTED AVERAGE SCORES
BNP Paribas Deutsche Bank Intesa SanPaolo Société
Générale Citi
Market share (% of responses) 53% 15% 15% 15% 3%
Relationship management 5.44 4.91 4.59 4.88 Client service 5.66 4.71 5.10 Account management 5.43 5.31 5.71 Asset safety 5.52 5.83 Risk management 5.76 6.01 Liquidity management 5.18 Regulation and compliance 5.58 Innovation Asset servicing Market Average Global Average
n/a 5.06 5.20
4.93 n/a 5.25 5.40
5.49 n/a 5.31 5.44
5.83 6.59 n/a 5.66 5.68
4.84 5.45 n/a 5.54 5.46
6.28 4.54 7.00 n/a 5.18 4.89
5.24 5.52 6.73 n/a 5.37 5.64
5.67 4.76 4.28 5.62 n/a 5.20 5.18
4.95 5.21 4.74 6.21 n/a 4.95 5.09
Pricing 4.96 4.20 4.71 5.71 n/a 4.86 4.82
Technology 5.33 5.52 5.47 5.10 n/a 5.34 5.28
Cash management and FX 4.12 5.08 4.77 3.35 n/a 4.24 4.25
Total 5.31 5.24 5.01 5.22 n/a 5.18 5.24
88
Global Custodian
Fall 2018