Securities services providers will have to make major strategic choices if they are to maintain their revenues. Despite the increases in revenues driven by assets value recovery and the growth in emerging markets over the past few years, changes since the crisis have put pressure on the economics of the business and the industry will likely be challenged going forward.

Samir Pandiri, executive vice president and CEO of asset servicing, BNY Mellon, is participating on the Sibos panel that will tackle the issue Decision time for custodians: optimise core or change model? “The session captures precisely the challenges facing us on the custody side of our business. In point of fact, the title’s a bit of false choice.”

“As everyone’s sure to hear at Sibos, it’s not a case of choosing one or the other, it’s all about reshaping our service to meet the needs of our clients. This is especially the case as they relate to regulatory requirements and enhanced analytics as a key to boosting portfolio performance, while also maintaining a relentless focus on optimising processing efficiencies.”

Several trends will shape securities services including the evolution of client needs, continued price-based competition and potential new entrants, high investment requirements, slow organic growth and regulatory changes.

“We see the challenges of the current economic environment from the perspective of both investment managers and investment services providers,” added Pandiri. “From both ends of the investment spectrum, having an efficient, robust and reliable system in place to manage the flow of information and funds between investors and their counterparties is absolutely indispensable. That’s why Swift came about in the first place.”