Text 3.2 Global custodians — working for the international investor

For global investors, there are many everyday concerns. Picking up the pieces once the deal is done. Chasing payments, tracking the status of cross-border trades. In short, keeping up with the paperchase that commences every time- stock changes hands.

However, serious players, such as pension and insurance fund managers, brokers, institutional and corporate investors look to Global Custodians to smooth the settlement trail — leaving themselves free to concentrate exclusively on portfolio management.

But there is much more to Global Custody than securities handling and basic custodial functions: receiving income, lodging tax reclaims and processing corporate actions.

As custodians, Barclays Global Securities Services (BGSS) works closely with investors, who constantly monitor portfolio values, need high-quality intelligence on market conditions worldwide, and require up to the minute status and cash reports to maximise fund performance.

No client should ever miss an investment opportunity through lack of adequate or timely information. BGSS seeks to ensure that us clients always know exactly how much cash they have on hand, so they can make it work to optimum effect through an unrivalled global network, ensuring that client information flows are second to none.

BGSS, which holds approximately $75 billion in clients' assets, ranks among the top 10 in a worldwide Global Custody market that has gone from strength to strength in recent years, fuelled by explosive growth in cross- border equity flows. In 1987, such international investments rose by 70 per cent to an estimated $ I.34 trillion. After falling back somewhat as a result of the 1987 Crash, levels have been rising again during 1989 and 1990.

Global Custody is very much a London-based product. London's strength among international financial markets, together with its advantageous geographical position at the heart of the daily global trading cycle, make it a natural centre for the handling of cross-border investments.

Reflecting these advantages, British custodians are well in front in terms of the global spread of their activities — with Barclays Global Securities Services, 50 per cent of whose business is cross-border, acknowledged amongst the market leaders. By comparison, on average only 10 per cent of American custodians' business is international.

The striking growth of the Global Custody industry around the world can be attributed to a number of factors which have combined to lubricate the global investment machine, making it simpler and safer tor investors to take advantage of the often spectacular opportunities for gain available in an international trading environment.

Foremost has been the development of innovative ranges of financial instruments, including Treasury products for hedging against interest rate and currency risk; and the emergence of equity instruments aimed specially at international investors requiring, for example, timely settlement of programme trades.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16