Few would quibble with State Street’s impressive record in investor services, but its direction in asset management urgently requires clarification. This summer, the Boston-based custody bank vetoed a London initiative to merge its asset management business with Swiss banking group UBS.

This would have created a behemoth managing $2.5 trillion. UBS Global Asset Management stood to gain access to the array of passive products and exchange-traded funds of State Street Global Advisors. SSgA's chief executive Scott Powers could have got stuck into active management, where he has experience. State Street would have had up to $600bn of captive UBS assets to service. Perfect.