BNY Mellon branch licence geared to deliver

Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) is hoping the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority will approve its application for a branch banking licence covering its Australian operations within the next few months.

The licence application was lodged late last year, and Bank of New York Mellon's chairman of Asia Pacific, Christopher Sturdy, last week told Super Review that the move reflected the institution’s growing footprint both in Australia and the broader south-east Asian region.

The bank has signalled that its decision to pursue the branch licence is aimed at extending its wholesale capabilities for its corporate trust clients.

Sturdy said the application and a number of other initiatives tended to confirm BNY Mellon’s standing as “the bankers’ bank”.

He said contrary to the general trend in the financial services industry, the granting of the branch licence would result in a lift in headcount rather than a reduction for BNY Mellon.

“We are looking to build out some capabilities for BNY Mellon in Australia that we did not have before,” he said. “Now that does not mean we are looking to take deposits and we are not looking to make loans, but in the trustee business the issuers of debt for whom we are the trustee obviously pay to us and through us to bond-holders substantial amounts of Aussie dollars.

“Without branch status we can’t do anything with that, we can’t manage it, and that is something we do actively in Europe and the US, and farming that out to third parties is an opportunity lost,” Sturdy said.