Markets and Financing

Advancing strategic priorities, investing in our future

Markets and Financing at State Street encompasses the Global Markets and Global Credit Finance businesses, which deliver industry-leading solutions to institutional investors globally.

Markets and Financing spans foreign exchange (FX) trading and securities finance solutions, as well as credit lending across client types, including asset managers, asset owners, alternative investors, and corporations. Our lending products range from fund financing to municipal lending. Through these business units, we aim to be the premier global provider of liquidity, financing, and research solutions for institutional clients.

In 2023, our Global Markets unit, which includes securities finance and FX trading services, leveraged its strong market position and outperformed industry peers in a tough market environment, as low volatility in FX and equity markets created fee revenue headwinds. Global Credit Finance focused on providing financing and lines of credit for our clients and delivering tailored solutions to them while advancing the firm’s strategic priorities.

In FX trading, we continued to build on our suite of electronic trading tools with the launch of our FX Portfolio Algo, designed to aid our clients in executing a basket of orders across currency pairs in an optimal, efficient, and cost-effective manner. We also continued to drive global expansion initiatives. Notable milestones that opened new revenue streams included executing our first FX trades with local clients in Brazil, offering onshore Chinese Yuan (CNY) FX via the China Interbank Bond Market (CIBM), and further expanding our client base across continental Europe and the United Kingdom.

In preparation for the U.S. equity market’s May 2024 transition to a shortened trade settlement cycle, we enhanced our automated benchmark service, StreetFX℠, by adding greater integration and workflow transparency for T+1 settlement. The automated workflow solution is the first platform to offer integration with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), augmenting operational efficiency for faster availability of funds, and helping manage overall risk for the market.

In financing solutions, we continued to advance our peer-to-peer platform, Venturi, executing the first peer-to-peer repurchase agreements traded on the platform. Among its many features, Venturi connects buy-side firms with new sources of liquidity in global repo and securities finance. We also joined Eurex as a principal-based participant — via our Munich-based subsidiary, State Street Bank International — as the first central clearinghouse outside the U.S., and commenced trading centrally cleared repo transactions, expanding our European franchise and service offering.

In March, we announced our agreement to acquire CF Global Trading, a global firm specializing in outsourced trading for equities, listed derivatives, and fixed-income. The combination of our two firms expands our geographic coverage and capabilities to seven cities across five major continents, giving us critical mass in a rapidly growing market. In addition, this acquisition complements our State Street Alpha® front-to-back platform by adding a full suite of trading capabilities. We completed the acquisition in early 2024.

During the year, we made further enhancements to GlobalLink, our award-winning suite of electronic trading platforms that offer solutions designed to increase transparency and improve trading efficiency. On our Fund Connect ETF platform, an online portal for the creation and redemption of ETFs, we streamlined clients’ electronic workflows by adding the Financial Information eXchange application programming interface (FIX API), which allows users to send orders directly from their order management system to the platform. We also expanded the Fund Connect ETF Portal into Australia to meet the needs of clients in this country.

Global Credit Finance
Throughout 2023, Global Credit Finance remained focused on providing clients with value-added, specialized solutions to meet their financing needs and supporting them through the execution of new, innovative lending opportunities, as well as strengthening internal collaborations to holistically advance the firm’s growth strategy.

Global Credit Finance focused on private equity and private credit markets, generating historic revenue growth in 2023. We supported the evolving needs of alternatives clients by closing our first loan backed by infrastructure assets and first private credit interval fund. In addition, we are working to expand our private credit lending capabilities in Europe.

Global Markets will continue to build on its legacy of innovation. We remain committed to being a strategic partner, providing solutions for client needs in an ever-changing market and regulatory landscape. In 2024, Global Markets’ focus is on expanding our suite of liquidity, financing, and research products to enable better outcomes for our clients. From a liquidity perspective, we will be expanding our outsourced trading capabilities, rolling out our T+1 FX solutions, and growing our FX product suite, as well as adding new trading tools and features to our GlobalLink platform businesses.

We will continue to provide high-value research leveraging our proprietary data sets, academic partnerships, and artificial intelligence. Given Global Credit Finance’s command of distinct credit aspects of the private equity, private credit, infrastructure, and real estate sectors, we will continue to support the growth of our alternative investments clients through the execution of new, innovative lending opportunities in 2024.

Crucially, in pursuit of our goal to be the premier global provider of liquidity, financing, and research solutions for leading global institutions, our unwavering focus remains on building deep relationships with our clients.