Blockchain is an existential threat, as tiw has stated, to BNYM and any financial services institution that provides custody services.
However, this is a long term threat as blockchain requires a massive amount of distributed computing power and an agreement on what and how things will be stored and transacted on the blockchain by all parties using it.
A blockchain based custody ledger isn’t just going to appear overnight and disrupt the financial industry without the Fed and other sovereign government authorities stepping in to regulate it; this will take years.
BNYM is facing an ugly near term threat in that their revenue pipeline is currently non existent.
There is zero growth in custody banking and the next 3 quarters are going to be bumpy which is why BNYM is laying off so many people.
The only lever they have at the moment is cost cutting/containment.
5 year ago, BNYM should have been focusing heavily on reducing its tech and operations footprint (system and personnel redundancy/duplication) to control cost.
Instead, the CIO and President of Investment Services, both who are no longer with the organization, invested in NEXEN, Digital Pulse, and other new tech that was never going to provide business value or have a solid ROI.
Shame on them.
Good post @YZbl4go-5zln . Couldn’t agree more.