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A G E N T
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Japan
Mizuho Bank
“The support of Mizuho Bank is important for us to develop our
business in the Japanese market,” writes a client. These scores
suggest the average client shares that anxiety to keep Mizuho
engaged with their business. There are multiple tributes across
client service (“Mizuho always provides excellent service”),
relationship management (“We have forged a special relation-
ship with Mizuho”), asset servicing (“The proxy voting services
provided by Mizuho Bank are excellent”), compliance (“Mizuho
is well-versed in local regulation and compliance-related is-
sues”) and asset safety (“Mizuho clearly understands [the] legal
framework in place for clients’ asset protection”). One respond-
ent even adds, “Mizuho operates under a ‘dual office structure,’
which we find very comfortable and reasonable for a provider in
a quake-prone nation like Japan.”
The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ
“We are very satisfied and impressed by their client services
level, including speedy feedback, great communication skills
and constructive advice for solutions, showing very high level of
expertise,” writes a client. “We are particularly feeling helped
by their savvy [knowledge] of the Japanese market, such as
in-depth analysis of regulation change and advice regarding
market practices.” A second adds that “their quality of service
is impressive” with the RM playing “a key role to bridge the
communication between client and operations.” The average
scores bear out these testimonies, slipping below excellence in
a handful of issues only in asset servicing, cash and FX, collat-
eral, pricing, risk and relationship management and especially
innovation.
HSBC
This is a fine set of scores, in which the traditional virtues of
HSBC in terms of client service, operational efficiency and coun-
terparty quality are on full display. Settlement is seen as more or
less perfect and, if the bank could get its own deadlines closer to
the issuer cut-offs, asset-servicing would run it close – which is
quite an achievement in a notoriously intense market for proxy
voting and corporate actions. The only conspicuous shortcom-
ings arise in risk management and innovation.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
SMBC has not, contrary to the opinion of some respondents,
withdrawn from Yen custody. It is, however, taking the risk of
changing its strategy. Instead of persisting with a traditional
portfolio of sub-custody services, SMBC is developing val-
ue-added products, such as collateral management.
Standard Chartered Bank
The number of responses falls short of the threshold that allows
for a provider to be assessed, but respondents do record that
they like the client service, and the relationship management,
but have encountered technology issues. A client advises that a
“notification should be provided to clients for the contingency
arrangement if there is any major system failure.”
WEIGHTED AVERAGE SCORES
Mizuho Bank MUFG Bank HSBC SMBC Standard
Chartered Bank Citi
Market share (% of responses) 38% 38% 13% 6% 4% 2%
Relationship management 6.39 5.88 5.79 n/a n/a Client service 6.36 6.12 6.34 n/a Account management 6.37 6.19 5.77 n/a Asset safety 6.50 6.26 5.71 Risk management 6.45 5.92 4.82 Liquidity management 5.71 5.91 Regulation and compliance 6.41 6.16 Innovation 6.41 Asset servicing 6.16 Pricing Technology Market Average Global Average
n/a 5.79 5.20
n/a n/a 6.06 5.40
n/a n/a 5.95 5.44
n/a n/a n/a 6.21 5.68
n/a n/a n/a 5.81 5.46
4.79 n/a n/a n/a 5.29 4.89
6.06 n/a n/a n/a 6.17 5.64
5.45 4.50 n/a n/a n/a 5.39 5.18
5.90 5.17 n/a n/a n/a 5.46 5.09
6.10 5.35 4.06 n/a n/a n/a 5.20 4.82
6.21 6.07 5.06 n/a n/a n/a 5.64 5.28
Cash management and FX 4.55 5.84 4.07 n/a n/a n/a 4.39 4.25
Total 6.27 5.91 5.26 n/a n/a n/a 5.68 5.24
Fall 2018
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