Welcome to this edition of The Custodian. This period marks one year since the formation of our Financing and Securities Services (FSS) business. While certainly a challenging time for such a change, we are proud to have shown resilience in adapting to the altered state of working that our whole industry continues to face.
Global economic recovery remains uneven. With countries across the world continuing to move in and out of lockdown, it’s clear that we must hold strong, keep adapting, and drive the opportunities that are available to us.
We’re increasingly seeing strategic – yet virtual – conversations happening amongst and with our clients across the world. Specifically, there is renewed appetite for investment in markets across our footprint. Asia, Africa and the Middle East are home to the markets with the greatest growth potential in the world; COVID-19 has not altered this fact. And now, bolstered by both adapted ways of working and mindsets, many clients are ready to explore these prospects once again.
In this edition, we delve into some of these opportunities, which are transpiring despite – and sometimes because of – COVID-19. India and its capital markets is one encouraging example, especially given the pandemic turmoil that has unfolded there. In India: Returning back to strength, we explore the country’s resilience, and the fundamentals that continue to make it an attractive investment location for foreign institutions.
Shifting to North Asia, Taiwan is doing double duty. Its economy fared well in 2020 – especially in contrast to its neighbours – and we expect even better in 2021. Yet beyond the resulting domestic investment prospects, Taiwan also offers institutional investors access to the region more broadly. Find out more in Why Taiwan’s markets offer global investors a gateway to Asia.
Over in East Africa, rapid developments in digitalisation and market reforms – coupled with resilient economic growth – are presenting previously-inaccessible opportunities for institutional investors. Read Driving flows into East Africa to learn why the region’s capital markets are getting so much attention.
Beyond the geographical highlights, our clients are exploring booming asset classes. Transition finance and blended finance offer increasingly promising yield, as well as of course supporting a goal we must all get behind – the move to net zero. Explore a regional view on this in Financing the energy transition in the Middle East.
And finally, Islamic finance asset classes are also experiencing increased demand. In Supporting Islamic finance: How custodians are facilitating the market’s growth, we discuss the evolution of custodian banks in the space, and how this is encouraging the market-share growth of Shariah-compliant products.
We hope you enjoy these reads. And we remain hopeful that we can continue this dialogue in person before too long.
Margaret Harwood-Jones Co-head, Financing and Securities Services
