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Types of Banks Central bank Advising bank Commercial bank Community development bank Custodian bank Depository bank Investment bank Islamic banking Merchant bank Mutual bank Mutual savings bank National bank Offshore bank Private bank Savings bank Swiss bank

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In finance, a custodian bank, or simply custodian, refers to a financial institution responsible for safeguarding a firm's or individual's financial assets. The role of a custodian in such a case would be the following: to hold in safekeeping assets such as equities and bonds, arrange settlement of any purchases and sales of such securities, collect information on and income from such assets (dividends in the case of equities and interest in the case of bonds), provide information on the underlying companies and their annual general meetings, manage cash transactions, perform foreign exchange transactions where required and provide regular reporting on all their activities to their clients. Custodian banks are often referred to as global custodians if they hold assets for their clients in multiple jurisdictions around the world, using their own local branches or other local custodian banks in each market to hold accounts for their underlying clients. Assets held in such a manner are typically owned by pension funds.

In relation to American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), a local custodian bank is a bank in a country outside the United States that holds the corresponding amount of shares of stock trading on the home stock market represented by an ADR trading in the U.S. This bank acts as custodian bank for the depository bank that issues the ADRs in the U.S. stock market. Summary of custodian servicesSettlement, safekeeping, reporting of client’s marketable securities and cash

The following companies offer custodian bank services:

• BNP Paribas
• Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
• Citigroup
• Credit Suisse
• Goldman Sachs
• JPMorgan Chase
• KAS BANK N.V.
• Kaupthing Bank
• Mellon Financial
• Northern Trust
• RBC Dexia
• State Street Corp.
• The Bank of New York
• The PFPC Division of PNC Financial Services Group

• Investopedia - definition of Custodian