Hi Francisco. The direct linkage between SIX and CMU, operated through CMU OmniClear on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, has now gone live. Why is this an important milestone for SIX and its clients?
The launch of the direct linkage with CMU, operated through CMU OmniClear on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, is an important milestone because it creates a direct connection between trusted financial market infrastructures in two important financial centers.
For our clients, the significance is very practical. As investment strategies become increasingly global, institutions need efficient and reliable access to international opportunities without adding unnecessary operational complexity. This collaboration strengthens that connectivity while maintaining the security, resilience, and service standards clients expect from established market infrastructures.
It also reflects the broader strategy of SIX to connect markets and facilitate international investment. By working directly with other trusted infrastructures, we can help create more efficient links between financial ecosystems and support the continued development of cross-border investment.
For SIX, this is another step in strengthening our International Custody proposition and helping clients access domestic, European, and international markets more seamlessly.
That growing internationalization of investment is also changing what institutions expect from their providers. SIX provides international custody services across more than 50 markets worldwide. What are clients looking for from a custody partner today?
Client expectations have evolved significantly over the last decade. Institutions are no longer looking only for a provider that can safeguard assets. They increasingly want a strategic partner that can help them manage complexity, improve operational efficiency, and support future growth.
One of the clearest trends is the desire to simplify operating models. Investors are active across more markets, asset classes, and jurisdictions, while many institutions want to reduce the number of relationships they manage. That makes broad market access, strong servicing, and operational consistency increasingly important when selecting a custody partner.
Access remains critical, but clients are also placing greater emphasis on value-added services. This includes areas such as tax services, proxy voting, corporate actions processing, data, reporting, and market intelligence. These capabilities help institutions operate more efficiently while supporting regulatory and governance requirements.
At the same time, institutions want partners that can support both current and future investment needs. The distinction between traditional and digital assets is becoming less relevant from an operational perspective. Clients increasingly expect service providers to support a broad range of asset classes through an integrated, infrastructure-driven model.
Trust remains just as important as innovation. Institutions continue to prioritize stability, security, resilience, and expertise, particularly in a changing geopolitical and regulatory environment.
With those expectations evolving, what differentiates the International Custody offering of SIX in today’s increasingly complex post-trade environment?
SIX stands out because it combines market infrastructure expertise with European custody capabilities, broad international reach, value-added servicing, and support for both traditional and digital assets.
Unlike many custody providers, SIX is first and foremost a financial market infrastructure provider. Our core mission is to ensure the secure and efficient functioning of financial markets. This infrastructure-led approach provides clients with a highly resilient operating environment supported by robust governance, operational excellence, and a long-term strategic outlook.
Another key differentiator is our geographic proposition. Through our CSDs in Switzerland and Spain, combined with our international custody network covering more than 50 markets, we are uniquely positioned to support domestic, European, and international investment strategies. For clients looking to simplify their custody model, this creates an opportunity to consolidate access, servicing, and expertise within a trusted infrastructure framework. As part of a diversified financial market infrastructure company, we can also draw on capabilities across the broader securities value chain, including trading, clearing, securities finance, and reporting services, helping clients benefit from a more connected ecosystem.
This reach is supported by asset servicing and data capabilities that help clients manage activity across the investment lifecycle. It is a practical way to reduce fragmentation and support more needs through one relationship.
Another important differentiator is how we are helping clients prepare for the future of investing. SIX has integrated its digital asset capabilities into its core post-trade infrastructure rather than developing a separate ecosystem. This enables clients to access traditional and digital assets through a familiar operating model while benefiting from consistent standards of security, governance, and operational resilience. We believe this convergence of traditional and digital markets will become an increasingly important differentiator in the years ahead.
You have spoken about clients wanting to simplify their operating models. How important is the ability to bring together market access, custody, asset servicing, and different asset classes within one infrastructure?
It is becoming essential. As investment strategies expand, institutions often have to manage multiple providers, processes, and data flows. That adds complexity at a time when they are trying to make operations simpler and more efficient.
For SIX, the value lies in bringing together European custody, access to more than 50 international markets, asset servicing, data, and future-ready infrastructure in a more coherent model. More broadly, clients increasingly benefit from working with a partner that can support them across the securities value chain. As part of a diversified financial market infrastructure , SIX combines access to market data and insights, exchange services, clearing, settlement, custody, securities finance, and reporting capabilities within one connected ecosystem. This helps reduce operational friction, improve visibility across the investment lifecycle, and create a more efficient operating model.
The objective is not simply to provide more services. It is to make the overall operating model simpler and more efficient for clients, with consistent standards of security, governance, and resilience across the different parts of their investment activity. By connecting capabilities across the securities value chain, clients can benefit from fewer interfaces, fewer handovers, and a stronger foundation for growth across both traditional and digital markets.
That integrated model can help clients reduce fragmentation today and remain flexible as markets, technologies, and asset classes continue to evolve.
The CMU linkage is also an example of cooperation between established financial market infrastructures. As investment flows become increasingly international, what role do trusted infrastructures play in enabling efficient cross-border investment?
Trusted market infrastructures play a fundamental role in supporting the global financial system. Behind every investment transaction is a complex framework of settlement, custody, asset servicing, and risk management processes that ensure markets operate safely and efficiently.
As investment flows become increasingly international, this role becomes even more important. Investors want access to opportunities around the world, but they also need confidence that the underlying infrastructure is secure, resilient, and reliable. Market infrastructures provide the operational foundations that allow capital to move efficiently across borders.
They also help create greater standardization and transparency. By reducing operational complexity and promoting consistent market practices, infrastructures can make it easier for institutions to enter new markets and manage increasingly diverse investment portfolios.
At SIX, we see our role as helping connect markets and support efficient investment flows. Our infrastructure-led perspective allows us to combine global reach with local market knowledge, while maintaining the standards of trust, resilience, and operational excellence that clients expect.
Looking beyond this latest collaboration, where do you see the greatest opportunities to further expand or strengthen the International Custody offering of SIX?
We see significant opportunities to continue developing our proposition across several complementary areas.
International market access remains an important part of this. As investors diversify globally, we will continue to evaluate opportunities to strengthen connectivity and broaden the reach of our custody network, whether through direct infrastructure links, strategic partnerships, or other market access models.
We also see significant potential in asset servicing. As custody models evolve, services such as tax relief, proxy voting, and corporate actions are becoming increasingly important in helping clients manage complexity and operate efficiently across markets.
Data is another important area of development. Clients increasingly rely on timely reporting, analytics, market intelligence, and operational insights to support investment decisions, monitor risks, and improve efficiency. We see significant opportunities to continue developing these capabilities as part of the broader custody value proposition.
Digital transformation will also play an increasingly important role. As traditional and digital markets converge, clients will need infrastructure that can support both within a consistent operating environment. SIX has already established strong foundations here, and we see considerable potential to build on them as institutional adoption develops.
Finally, we see opportunities to further strengthen our European proposition. By building on the combined strengths of our Swiss and Spanish CSDs and our international custody network, we can offer institutions a more integrated approach across domestic, European, and global markets.
Taken together, these priorities support one objective: making it easier for clients to access more markets, services, and asset classes through a trusted infrastructure partner.
Bringing these elements together, what is your long-term ambition for the International Custody business of SIX?
Our ambition is to establish SIX as the preferred infrastructure partner for clients seeking seamless access to domestic, European, and international markets.
We believe the future of custody will be defined by simplicity, connectivity, and integration. Clients want to reach more markets, invest across more asset classes, and capture new opportunities without adding operational complexity. Our goal is to make that possible through an integrated, infrastructure-led operating model.
By combining trusted financial market infrastructure, European custody, international reach, asset servicing, digital asset capabilities, and the broader strengths of a connected market infrastructure ecosystem, we aim to help clients navigate a more complex investment landscape through one stronger and more integrated proposition.
We believe this combination of market infrastructure expertise, international reach, comprehensive servicing, and future-ready capabilities will become increasingly important as the investment landscape continues to evolve.
Thank you, Francisco!