Deutsche Bank Leads Asia Custody Awards Shortlist

Organizers published the shortlist for the Leaders in Custody Asia Awards 2026, with Deutsche Bank receiving 13 nominations, BNP Paribas 11 and HSBC 10. The awards ceremony is scheduled for May 28 in Singapore.

The shortlist covers agent banks, fund services providers, fintechs and technology initiatives across major, emerging and frontier markets in the Asia Pacific region. Survey-driven categories were chosen using feedback from network managers, asset managers and global custodians. Editors’ Choice, innovation and individual awards were selected by the awards’ editorial team.

Mizuho and Standard Chartered each received eight nominations. Northern Trust appears six times. MUFG, DBS and State Street were shortlisted four times apiece. ICBC, Citi, BNY, JP Morgan and Euroclear also appear multiple times on the list.

Agent bank categories are split into Major, Emerging and Frontier market awards. Nominees in Best in Class categories include Deutsche Bank, Mizuho and Standard Chartered for global account management; BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Mizuho for asset safety and risk management; and Deutsche Bank, ICBC and Mizuho for asset servicing. Client service and relationship management shortlists include BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Mizuho. Technology nominations name BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Mizuho for market and client-facing systems work.

Fund services shortlists name Apex Group, Citco and Precision Fund Services for Fund Administrator of the Year, and Citi, HSBC and State Street for ETF Administrator of the Year. The Editors’ Choice Global Custodian of the Year shortlist features BNP Paribas, BNY, Citi, JP Morgan and State Street.

The awards also list custody and fund services deals by Citi, HSBC, JP Morgan, MUFG and BNP Paribas. Asset servicing partnerships and project nominees include Clearstream, Euroclear, State Street and Northern Trust. Fintech of the Year nominees include Chainlink, MarketNode, Proxymity and Zodia. Digital asset or distributed ledger technology initiatives on the shortlist include Euroclear’s Digital Financial Market Infrastructure, HSBC Orion, Northern Trust’s cross-border trading of digital carbon credits, and a joint UBS, Chainlink and DigiFT project on automating tokenized fund operations.

Market infrastructure projects on the shortlist include a Clearstream and Euroclear offshore Chinese government bonds collateral initiative and HKEX’s Bond Connect Securities Collateral work. Special recognition entries include HSBC Orion, Northern Trust’s carbon credits and tokenization work, Proxymity’s proxy voting project in Australia, and State Street’s acquisition of Mizuho’s custody business.

Organizers said nominations for Innovation Awards remain open and that submissions for Individual Awards are now accepted for the first time. The full shortlist and details on attendance and category enquiries are available from the awards organizers.