SIX Continues Its Winning Streak at the Global Custodian Awards

In addition to winning the coveted award for Agent Bank of the Year for Major Markets, SIX secured top spot in several Best-in-Class categories, including for its performance in Account Management and Asset Safety and Risk Management.

At SIX we put our clients first and these awards are an apt reflection of our unwavering commitment to them. Account management is something we take seriously, as is asset safety and risk management, which is critical as a general matter and even more so in times of heightened geo-political and market uncertainty,” said Rafael Moral Santiago, Head Securities Services, SIX.

The awards celebrate milestone achievements and progress in Securities Services. They recognize providers who have excelled in Global Custodian’s Agent Bank surveys, the results of which are based on a combination of quantitative data and client feedback, alongside Editors’ Choice, Innovation and Individual honors.

SIX has enjoyed a lot of success at the Global Custodian awards in recent years. In 2025, it topped the rankings in the Best-in-Class categories for Account Management, Asset Safety and Risk Management and Data Services.

This latest flurry of honors follows a period of major strategic transformation and re-alignment at SIX, as the organization and its leadership respond to fast-evolving market dynamics.

SIX’s Securities Services arm is accelerating its pan-European expansion plans and consolidating core infrastructure across custody, clearing and trade repositories. SIX is also doubling down on digital, by embedding Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) into its systems, re-wiring the business focus from traditional post-trade platforms towards innovative, higher growth data and technology led solutions for clients.

With condensed settlement cycles poised to reshape the industry over the next 12-24 months, SIX is dialling up its efforts to support clients and the wider market ecosystem with the transition.

Due to the number of jurisdictions, currencies, regulators and Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs) involved in the transition, Europe’s T+1 implementation was never going to be as straightforward as North America’s.

Help is at hand, however. Regulators, including the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), and industry bodies, such as the EU’s T+1 Industry Committee, the UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce, and the Swiss Securities Post-Trade Council (Swiss SPTC), have all published guidance for the industry on how to ensure an efficient and resilient T+1 transition.

SIX is going to great lengths to ensure that clients are prepared for T+1, having released a detailed white paper - SIX High Level Assessment for T+1 Migration – outlining the strategic rationale for the transition, the European and Swiss frameworks governing the move to T+1, and the role of SIX in facilitating the shift to a shorter settlement cycle. It is also hosting a number of events dedicated to T+1 for clients in both Zurich and Madrid.

A seamless T+1 rollout hinges on automation and standardization.

In practice, this means harmonizing operational windows by ensuring same-day submission of settlement instructions, improving the quality of static reference data to ensure Straight-through-Processing (STP), having a coordinated start for Securities Settlement Systems at the beginning of the settlement date, and aligning end of day cutoffs for delivery versus payment processing.

The industry is moving in the right direction with T+1.

Last year, financial institutions, including SIX, were spending the bulk of their time performing detailed impact assessments on what shorter settlement cycles will mean for trading, clearing, settlements and corporate actions, as well as ensuring that market standards were broadly homogenous.

With this gap analysis largely wrapped up, now is the time for decisive action. SIX is increasingly allocating resources to systems development, automation enhancements, and comprehensive testing of end-to-end processes, cross-border interoperability and contingency planning.

This testing phase, which involves both internal and external stakeholders, is expected to continue right up until T+1’s go-live date.

T+1 in Europe is only the start, with Swift forecasting that 70% of global settlement volumes will be on T+1, or faster, by 2030. [1] A number of markets in Asia, Latin America and pockets of Africa, are shifting towards compressed settlement cycles, while some countries are even considering T+0.

Closer integration will help SIX deliver a more seamless client experience whilst also achieving operational efficiencies across the business.

In December 2025, SIX announced it would consolidate its two CCPs – SIX x-clear in Switzerland and Spain’s BME Clearing – into a combined entity, SIX Clearing, based in Madrid, with branches in Zurich and Oslo. The merger is due to be completed in 2027.

This single CCP will bring together SIX x-clear’s interoperable pan-European cash equity model with BME Clearing’s multi-asset strengths, creating an international, scalable, open and competitive alternative for clearing across asset classes in Europe.

Digitalization remains a strategic priority for SIX, as it looks to capitalize on the rise of digital assets, DLT and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

As more clients pile into digital assets, post-trade providers are having to develop new solutions.  Rather than replacing existing infrastructure altogether, a hybrid model is emerging which bridges traditional and digital assets within trusted, regulated frameworks.

SIX has recently received approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to merge its digital CSD into SIX SIS AG. This means SIX will be able to provide digital capabilities, such as tokenization, collateral mobility and DLT-based asset servicing across the full spectrum of assets managed by Securities Services in both Switzerland and Spain.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, SIX received approval from FINMA to provide crypto-custody services through its licensed CSD, another landmark moment.

This will enable financial institutions to obtain crypto-custody services within the same regulated infrastructure used for traditional securities, offering customers a high degree of legal certainty and operational resilience.

Fuelled by the US GENIUS Act and other regulatory developments, such as the abolition of SAB 121 by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), return-hungry investors are ramping up their exposures to digital assets.

Despite the volatility, crypto ETFs have accumulated close to $200 billion [2], whilst Citi is forecasting that Stablecoin issuance could top $4 trillion by 2030, up from $280 billion today.[3]

Asset tokenization, enabled by DLT, is also gaining traction, with The Value Exchange finding that 52% of firms intend to start using tokenized assets (e.g. tokenized cash, money market funds, G7 debt, etc) as collateral from 2026, across a number of different activities, including repo trading, OTC derivatives margining, securities lending, and listed derivatives trading. [4]

Other technologies, including AI, are also gaining critical mass, as post-trade providers look to boost productivity and augment client experiences.

A recent study by ESMA found that 96% of large financial institutions are either using or plan to use AI. It continued that whilst most AI use cases are internal, such as drafting/summarizing information, data processing, coding, and translation, a handful of firms are beginning to leverage the technology for client-facing activities, such as chatbot communications and KYC. [5]

Providers, such as SIX, who are both able to adapt to changing market circumstances and embrace digitalization, will be well-positioned to grow their book of business moving forward.

[1] Swift- T+1: One Year In – A new chapter begins

[2] Morgan Stanley – February 27, 2026 – Digital assets push into the mainstream as global adoption surges

[3] Citi – September 25, 2025 – StableCoin 2030: Web3 to Wall Street

[4] The Value Exchange- The case for collateral tokenisation

[5] ESMA- March 4, 2026 – AI and adoption and trends in securities markets: EU Evidence

• SIX Securities Services
• Global Custodian Leaders in Custody Awards 2026