Custody assets look to offshore assets

Total assets under custody for Australian investors jumped 8% to $4.06 trillion, over the six months to 31 December, 2019, with increasing exposure to offshore markets, according to data.

Data from the Australian Custodial Services Association (ACSA), found Northern Trust’s had the largest jump in assets under custody at 28.4% to $576 billion and was ranked third in terms of size.

Topping the rankings was J.P. Morgan with a 7.1% increased to $866.7 billion, followed by NAB Asset Servicing at $578 billion (up 2.5%), Northern Trust, Citigroup at $575.4 billion (up 13.6%), and State Street at $511.4 billion (up 4.5%).

Commenting, ACSA chief executive, Robert J Brown, said: “The bulk of total assets remains invested in Australia, although $1.23 trillion (just over 30%) is invested offshore. The data shows that an increased exposure to offshore markets is a long-term trend for Australian institutions. The corresponding figure at December 2019 was $396 billion or 22%.

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“Although not currently included in the ACSA statistics, the other significant trend is the appetite in some sectors for increased allocations to unlisted (private) assets – including equity, debt and infrastructure.

"For example, for funds that disclose their allocation benchmarks, the Australian Prudential and Regulation Authority (APRA) Quarterly MySuper Statistics for 31 December, 2019 show unlisted equity allocation targets range from zero to 12%. The asset weighted average was 3.5% as at the end of December last year.”