Custody banks provide the operational backbone of global capital markets — holding trillions in assets, processing millions of transactions, and generating the records that institutional investors rely on to manage their portfolios. In 2026, the operational complexity of the custody business is intensifying, and progressive custody institutions are deploying virtual assistants to absorb administrative workloads that would otherwise require proportional headcount growth.
The Scale and Complexity of Custody Operations
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) 2025 Securities Settlement Report estimated that global custodians collectively held assets exceeding $110 trillion under custody, with daily settlement volumes routinely exceeding $5 trillion in gross transaction value. The U.S. custody market is dominated by a handful of global players — State Street, BNY Mellon, J.P. Morgan — but sub-custodian and middle-market custody services support thousands of institutional asset managers, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds that require local custody expertise.
For custody banks, fee billing is among the most complex in the financial services industry. Custody fees are calculated on asset values, transaction volumes, income collection events, and foreign exchange activity — often across hundreds of currencies and dozens of markets. Generating accurate monthly or quarterly client billing statements requires extracting data from multiple systems, applying negotiated fee schedules, and reconciling calculated amounts against actual asset values.
The OCC's 2025 Custody and Trust Activities Handbook update noted that billing accuracy and client reporting timeliness remain supervisory focus areas, with examination teams specifically reviewing whether custody fee calculations are supported by adequate documentation.
Three Custody Operation Areas Supported by VAs
Custody Fee Billing Coordination. VAs support custody billing teams by pulling asset and transaction data from custody platforms (such as SunGard IntelliMatch or SteadyState), applying fee schedule parameters, producing draft billing statements for relationship manager review, and preparing billing reconciliation documentation. This iterative, data-intensive work is well-suited for virtual assistant support, freeing custody operations specialists for exception management and client escalation.
Institutional Client Administration. Custody clients generate continuous administrative requests: account opening documentation, standing settlement instruction updates, authorized signatory changes, and client portal access management. VAs manage these request queues, coordinate with internal operations teams, track request status, and maintain complete CRM records of client interactions — ensuring institutional clients receive timely acknowledgment and resolution.
Settlement and Reconciliation Support. While the execution of securities settlement is handled by automated systems, the exception management and reconciliation documentation surrounding settlement failures, corporate action elections, and income claim processing requires organized administrative tracking. VAs maintain exception logs, prepare status summaries for operations team review, and coordinate follow-up with counterparties and sub-custodians — reducing the documentation backlog that accumulates around settlement exceptions.
Operational Cost Pressures Driving VA Adoption
McKinsey's 2025 Global Capital Markets Infrastructure Report found that global custodians spent an average of 64% of total operating costs on staff, with operations and client service administration representing the largest staff cost categories. The report estimated that deploying structured remote administrative support for billing and client service functions could reduce per-account custody costs by 15–22%.
Accenture's 2025 Securities Operations Outlook noted that custody banks and transfer agents that integrated remote administrative support models achieved client onboarding cycle reductions of 31% and billing dispute resolution improvements of 24% compared to fully in-house staffing.
Precision as the Non-Negotiable Requirement
Custodial operations have zero tolerance for error — a misapplied corporate action or a billing dispute with a $10 billion pension fund client carries reputational and regulatory consequences that far exceed the immediate financial impact. Virtual assistants in custody operations are deployed within tightly controlled processes, with clear scope boundaries and multiple review points, to ensure that administrative support enhances rather than compromises operational accuracy.
Custody banks and sub-custodians evaluating virtual assistant solutions for institutional client billing and operations administration can explore financial services-trained options at Stealth Agents.
Sources
- Bank for International Settlements (BIS), 2025 Securities Settlement Report, bis.org
- Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Custody and Trust Activities Handbook 2025 Update, occ.gov
- McKinsey & Company, Global Capital Markets Infrastructure Report 2025, mckinsey.com