Digital innovation and disruption, long-established legacy systems, a tsunami of regulation, an increasing number of firms starting up and constantly changing customer requirements – financial institutions are experiencing all this and more as the securities markets undergo rapid transformation. The drastic shift in the industry comes along with a number of challenges as well as opportunities. It has become essential for post-trade service providers to improve efficiency and provide real value for their clients and themselves.
However, post-trade processing has become increasingly commoditised: safekeeping, settlement, corporate actions, tax services – former value-added services have turned into standard features. It might seem there is little to distinguish between different providers.