BNY Mellon recorded a year-on-year decline of 2 percent for its asset servicing business for Q4 2018, with revenues of just over $1.4 billion.
Commenting on the decrease, BNY Mellon stated the fall in revenue was due to “lower client assets and activity and the unfavourable impact of a stronger US dollar”.
However, full-year revenues from the asset servicing business did reach over $4.6 billion, up 5 percent in comparison to the full year of 2017.
The bank also recorded a decline in assets under custody.
As of 31 December 2018, BNY Mellon had $33.1 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $1.7 trillion in assets under management.
It said the decline in assets under custody mirrored “lower market values”, as well as the impact of the US dollar.
Overall, BNY Mellon reported total revenue of $4.0 billion, an increase of seven percent compared to Q4 2017.
Total investment services revenues, which includes revenues from asset servicing as well as clearing and collateral management businesses, increased 3 percent over the year to $3 billion.
Charlie Scharf, chairman and CEO of BNY Mellon, commented: “The underlying performance of our businesses was mixed as our revenue declined, but we continued to maintain strong expense discipline.”
He added: “In addition, we benefited from a lower tax rate and our ongoing ability to return capital to shareholders through buybacks.”
“As we look forward, we are cautious regarding how the economic and market environment will impact our business in 2019. We will remain keenly focused on managing our expense
base. Our ongoing drive toward efficiency will allow us to continue to increase our investment in technology and infrastructure without meaningfully impacting the total cost base.”
