Custodial sentence: G-Sib charge hits 'riskless' business

Along with the biggest market-makers and lenders, the two largest US custodians face new capital surcharges, which will limit their capacity to act as safe havens in times of crisis, they claim – potentially increasing systemic risk

G-Sib custodians will have to pay a heavy price for their heft

In The BFG, a children's book by Roald Dahl, the big, friendly giant of the title is alone among his kind. The other giants are big, of course, but unfriendly to the point of eating people when they have the chance. Happily, these other giants are eventually rounded up and imprisoned in a pit.

BNY Mellon and State Street were hoping US rules on global systemically important banks (G-Sibs) would follow a similar storyline. Yes, the two largest US custodians are big – they have combined assets