The custody business consists of two parts – global custody, where SEB helps financial institutions in their home markets with their securities services around the world, and sub-custody, whereby the bank assists global institutions with their Nordic investments.
In global custody, SEB has begun harvesting the fruits of the major investments it has made in a new technical platform. But a prerequisite for succeeding within global custody is to have a strong position in sub custody in your home markets and can provide exceptional service both when things go well and when they become more difficult.
"It is when get things get tough, we can really make a difference for our customers", says Lasse Larsen, head of Investor Services in Denmark.
Challenging migration
This was seen during the challenging migration to T2S end of 2018. When the problems occurred SEB managed to swiftly put together a crisis management team, which did everything they could to keep the customers continuously updated on the situation.
"In a crisis it is essential with accurate and clear communication. We tried to stay focused on the issue at hand, involve the right people, and make sure that our communication became as swift and transparent as possible", says Lasse Larsen.
Large inflows
As a direct consequence of the problems during the migration to T2S, many large foreign institutions choose to issue either requests for proposals or requests for information during 2019. SEB has won a majority of these, and transition to SEB will take place during 2020.
"This shows the strength in our interaction between local market expertise, central functions, operations and IT. I am incredibly proud of this collaboration and very happy to see the growth in confidence among our customers," says Johan Vieweg, head of cash and sub-custody in Investor Services.
During 2019 SEB increased the assets under custody in Denmark with 60 percent with more to come in 2020 when more customers will be migrated.
SEB also gained recognition in Global Custody magazine's Nordic market survey for 2019. SEB topped the ranking in all countries, and as for Denmark, the magazine noted that SEB's average score was strong in all service areas and topped the local competitors.