Who are BNY (Bank of New York Mellon)'s competitors, and what are the alternatives?
BNY competes where the financial system's plumbing is sold, not for retail deposits. In custody and asset servicing, where it oversaw $59.4 trillion of assets under custody and/or administration at March 31, 2026, its rivals are State Street ($54.52 trillion, which Reuters calls the smaller peer), Northern Trust ($18.55 trillion) and the securities-services arms of JPMorgan Chase ($41.2 trillion of assets under custody at the end of 2025) and Citigroup. Clients split mandates between them: BlackRock made BNY a second depositary for its Irish iShares ETFs beside State Street in 2024. In wealth custody and clearing, BNY Pershing is the third-largest RIA custodian behind Charles Schwab and Fidelity, and Goldman Sachs, LPL and the fintech Apex Fintech Solutions compete for the same advisers; in January 2026 BNY put Pershing and its Archer managed-accounts business under one global head of wealth solutions to press the point. In collateral management, the ECB monitors BNY with JPMorgan, BNP Paribas, Euroclear, Clearstream and SIX as Europe's triparty agents. The non-bank threat is named in BNY's own 10-K: financial technology firms, stablecoin issuers, outsourcing companies and data processing firms that compete in clearing, settlement, payments and trading. Circle is both a partner (BNY is primary custodian of USDC reserves) and a would-be rival, with its own national trust bank for digital-asset custody.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]
Data as of Oct 20, 2026 · BNY profile updated Oct 19, 2026 · computed tables recalculate from the 140 bank profiles on this site · Markdown
What does BNY say about its competition?
"BNY is subject to competition in all aspects and areas of our business. Our Securities Services and Market and Wealth Services businesses compete with domestic and international financial services firms that offer custody services, corporate trust services, clearing services, collateral management services, credit services, securities brokerage, foreign exchange services, derivatives, depositary receipt services and integrated cash management solutions and related products, as well as a wide range of technology service providers, such as financial services data processing firms. Our Investment and Wealth Management business competes with domestic and international investment management and wealth management firms, hedge funds, investment banking companies and other financial services companies, including trust banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies, as well as a wide range of technology service providers."[13]
"Competition in the financial services industry continues to be intense. Competition is based on a number of factors including, among others, customer service and convenience, transaction execution, capital or access to capital, quality and range of products and services offered, performance, technological innovation and expertise, including adaptation to technological change, price, reputation and lending limits. Competition also varies based on the types of clients, customers, industries and geographies served. [...] Our competitive position may be affected by institutions that are not similarly subject to extensive regulation, such as financial technology firms, and as further technological advances enable more companies, such as financial technology firms, to provide financial services." (Form 10-K for 2025, Item 1, filed February 25, 2026.)[13]
The risk factors in the annual report add: "technological advances have made it possible for other types of non-depository institutions, such as financial technology firms, stablecoin issuers, outsourcing companies and data processing companies, to offer a variety of products and services competitive with certain areas of our business, including with respect to our clearing, settlement, payments and trading activities. In the future, financial technology firms may be able to provide traditional banking products and services by obtaining a bank-like charter or offering stablecoins or cryptocurrencies." They also name "advances in artificial intelligence, automation and quantum computing" among the technologies that may quickly change markets.[11]
Who competes with BNY in each of its businesses?
| Business line | Competitor | Type | Why it competes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custody, fund administration and asset servicing | State Street | Bank | Reuters calls BNY State Street's 'larger peer'; State Street reported $54.52 trillion of assets under custody and administration at March 31, 2026. The two split BlackRock's Irish iShares ETFs, where BNY joined 'domestic rival State Street' as depositary and administrator (FT, February 2024).[2][5] |
| Custody, fund administration and asset servicing | Northern Trust | Bank | Reuters names BNY and State Street as Northern Trust's peers; it held $18.55 trillion of assets under custody and administration at March 31, 2026. BNY approached it about a merger in June 2025, and Senator Warren wrote that the combined custodial market share would exceed 30%.[3][14][15] |
| Custody, fund administration and asset servicing | JPMorgan Chase | Bank | BNY's 10-K says it competes with financial services firms that offer custody services; JPMorgan Chase's 2025 10-K reports $41,172 billion of assets under custody at year-end in its securities services business, up from $35,280 billion.[13][4] |
| Custody, fund administration and asset servicing | Citigroup | Bank | Citi's 2025 10-K reports that assets under custody and administration in its Services business rose 24%, and Citi Investor Services runs a Custody+ suite across more than 100 custody markets with 62 proprietary custody branches, the services BNY's 10-K names as its competitive field.[16][17][13] |
| Wealth custody and clearing (BNY Pershing) | Charles Schwab | Bank | WealthManagement.com (July 2026) reports Schwab is 'by far the behemoth' in RIA custody, leading across all RIA sizes, followed by Fidelity and BNY Pershing; Financial Advisor says BNY is taking aim at the advisory custody market long dominated by Schwab and Fidelity (June 2026).[6][7] |
| Wealth custody and clearing (BNY Pershing) | Fidelity Investments | Broker or asset manager | Financial Planning (June 2026) counts Schwab, Fidelity and Pershing as the three largest custodians, and an independent firm leaving LPL chose Pershing over Fidelity's National Financial Services as its clearing vendor; Financial Advisor puts Fidelity's custody at more than $5 trillion including institutional assets.[18][7] |
| Wealth custody and clearing (BNY Pershing) | Goldman Sachs | Bank | Goldman is a 'nascent entrant' in RIA custody that some advisers pick for its brand when moving to independence; a former BNY Pershing CEO told WealthManagement.com that BNY Pershing, Fidelity and Schwab also sell on identity (July 2026).[6] |
| Wealth custody and clearing (BNY Pershing) | LPL Financial | Broker or asset manager | Financial Advisor lists LPL, with $2.3 trillion in assets and an aggressive recruiting and acquisition program, among the platforms BNY Pershing competes with for advisers (June 2026).[7] |
| Wealth custody and clearing (BNY Pershing) | Interactive Brokers | Broker or asset manager | RIAs increasingly run several custodians at once: SteelPeak Wealth, a $4.2 billion adviser, added BNY Pershing for custody and clearing in December 2025 on top of existing setups with Charles Schwab, Fidelity's NFS and Interactive Brokers, and said it would stay multi-custodial.[19] |
| Wealth custody and clearing (BNY Pershing) | Apex Fintech Solutions | Fintech | Apex's CEO describes the custody market as a 'cinch point in the middle' between giants like Schwab, Fidelity and BNY Pershing; Apex custodies nearly $300 billion for about 250 RIA and brokerage clients (Financial Planning, October 2026).[9] |
| Collateral management and triparty | Euroclear | Other | The ECB's December 2025 SCoREBOARD monitors seven triparty agents for the euro area's collateral standards: BNY, Euroclear Bank, Euroclear France, Clearstream Banking Luxembourg, SIX SIS, BNP Paribas and JP Morgan.[10] |
| Collateral management and triparty | Clearstream | Other | Clearstream Banking Luxembourg is one of the seven triparty agents on the ECB's list and the only one expected to comply fully with the SCoRE triparty standards by November 2025; BNY had still to specify its milestone dates.[10] |
| Collateral management and triparty | JPMorgan Chase | Bank | JP Morgan is on the ECB's list of seven monitored triparty agents alongside BNY, and like BNY had yet to give exact dates for meeting the SCoRE triparty milestones (December 2025).[10] |
| Collateral management and triparty | BNP Paribas | Bank | BNP Paribas is one of the seven triparty agents the ECB monitors and told it that it would implement the triparty standards in 2026 (SCoREBOARD, December 2025).[10] |
| Digital assets, stablecoin reserves and tokenized cash | Circle | Fintech | BNY is primary custodian of USDC reserves and made USDC the first stablecoin on its Digital Asset Custody platform (June 2026), but BNY's 10-K lists stablecoin issuers among the non-banks competing in clearing, settlement and payments, and Circle received final OCC approval on July 10, 2026 for Circle National Trust, a national trust bank for digital-asset custody.[1][11][12] |
| Digital assets, stablecoin reserves and tokenized cash | Citigroup | Bank | Citi told CNBC in October 2025 it was aiming to launch a custody service for native crypto assets in 2026 for its asset-manager clients, a market where BNY was the first major bank to offer native bitcoin custody (Financial Advisor, June 2026).[20][7] |
| Digital assets, stablecoin reserves and tokenized cash | Goldman Sachs | Bank | PYMNTS reported in August 2025 that BNY and Goldman Sachs were both eyeing the management of stablecoin issuers' reserves, a business BNY already does for Ripple's RLUSD (July 2025) and Circle's USDC.[21][22][1] |
| Digital assets, stablecoin reserves and tokenized cash | Crypto-native custodians such as Coinbase | Fintech | PYMNTS describes the digital-asset custody contest as traditional banks against crypto-native firms that built custody infrastructure early, and notes that crypto-native firms already dominate retail custody.[21] |
How do the AI and digital offerings of BNY's competitors compare?
BNY first, then each competitor. Use-case counts, index scores and latest moves are computed from our profiles of each company; "No profile" means this site has no page on it yet.
| Company | AI or digital offering | On the record (our profiles) | Latest dated AI move |
|---|---|---|---|
| BNY (Bank of New York Mellon) (this page) | Eliza[23][24][25][26][27][28] | Index 89.8 (#5); 14 use cases, 12 in production | Q3 call: '400-plus' AI solutions in production; AI spend not broken out (Oct 15, 2026)[23] |
| State Street | Central AI hub with more than 200 use cases, 70 live (April 2026); agentic AI in production and 'driverless NAV' live (October 2026).[29][30] | Index 75.4 (#30); 14 use cases, 9 in production | Fogarty: agentic AI 'moved into production', driverless NAV live (Oct 1, 2026)[30] |
| Northern Trust | AI in more than 150 use cases; NT Byron platform for employee-built agents.[31][32] | Index 79.7 (#23); 17 use cases, 11 in production | CFO David Fox to retire around March 2027 (Sep 29, 2026)[33] |
| JPMorgan Chase | LLM Suite for about 250,000 employees; 175-plus AI use cases in production in the commercial and investment bank (May 2025).[34][35] | Index 89 (#6); 15 use cases, 8 in production | Q3 2026 call: outside AI agents stay blocked; AI spend put near $700 million (Oct 13, 2026)[36][37][38] |
| Citigroup | AI-powered Market Guide inside Custody+, with AI search and summaries of local market practice (September 2026).[17] | Index 94.9 (#2); 20 use cases, 15 in production | Payments chief: no AI model to authorise payments (Oct 1, 2026)[39] |
| Charles Schwab | The only RIA custodian in Anthropic's Claude for Financial Advisors, connecting Claude to Schwab Advisor Center for 16,000-plus RIAs (September 2026).[40] | Index 80.7 (#19); 19 use cases, 15 in production | How Charley was built: employee testing, confirmation before any change (Oct 8, 2026)[41] |
| Fidelity Investments | Not disclosed | No profile | Not disclosed |
| Goldman Sachs | GS AI Platform and GS AI Assistant[42][43] | Index 79.9 (#22); 13 use cases, 7 in production | Q3 2026 call: Solomon sets out AI guardrails and compute-supply risk (Oct 13, 2026)[44][45] |
| LPL Financial | Not disclosed | No profile | Not disclosed |
| Interactive Brokers | Not disclosed | No profile | Not disclosed |
| Apex Fintech Solutions | Ask Ascend, a Vertex AI assistant for integrating firms (March 2025), and the Apex AI Suite with an Agentic Development Kit (January 2026).[46][47] | 6 use cases, 5 in production | MOU with Architect's AI Exchange (Sep 24, 2026)[48] |
| Euroclear | Not disclosed | No profile | Not disclosed |
| Clearstream | Not disclosed | No profile | Not disclosed |
| BNP Paribas | LLM as a Service, with Mistral AI and Google Cloud[49][50][51][52][53] | 20 use cases, 12 in production | Five-year Google Cloud partnership for agentic AI (Sep 24, 2026)[51][53] |
| Circle | Circle Agent Stack (Agent Wallets, Agent Marketplace, Circle CLI, Nanopayments, Circle Skills)[54][55][56][57][58] | 7 use cases, 6 in production | Chainalysis counts 138 million agent payments on Base (Oct 14, 2026)[59] |
| Crypto-native custodians such as Coinbase | x402 and Coinbase for Agents[60][59][61][62][63] | 8 use cases, 8 in production | Chainalysis: 138 million x402 payments on Base (Oct 14, 2026)[59] |
Who should look beyond BNY, and where?
| If you are | Look at | Why |
|---|---|---|
| RIAs that want a custodian that does not charge an RIA custody fee | Charles Schwab, for now | Financial Planning reported in June 2026 that Pershing began charging at least some RIA clients a custody fee in 2025; a former Schwab Advisor Services executive predicts Schwab will 'absolutely have to' follow Pershing's example at some point, which implies it has not yet.[18] |
| Advisers who want client referrals from a custodian with retail investors | Charles Schwab or Fidelity referral programs | RIABiz notes Pershing has no retail presence and so no pool of self-directed investors to refer; its new BNY Advisor Match program draws on about $190 billion managed by BNY Mellon Advisors, which a former Schwab executive says is not much like Fidelity's or Schwab's programs (January 2026).[64] |
| Consumers who want a checking account and an AI banking assistant | A consumer bank such as Bank of America | BNY's 2025 annual report describes three business segments, Securities Services, Market and Wealth Services and Investment and Wealth Management, none of them a consumer bank; Bank of America's Erica had more than 3 billion interactions and nearly 50 million users by August 2025.[11][65] |
| Fund sponsors that want a second depositary to split operational risk | State Street | BlackRock split depositary and administration for its Dublin-domiciled iShares ETFs roughly 50-50 between State Street and BNY to diversify its post-trade providers, keeping State Street as registrar and transfer agent and for its German and Swiss ranges (FT, February 2024).[5] |
| Individuals who want to hold crypto in a retail wallet | Crypto-native platforms such as Coinbase | BNY's digital-asset custody serves institutions, such as stablecoin issuers and ETF sponsors; PYMNTS reports that crypto-native firms already dominate retail crypto custody and that banks are unlikely to compete directly there.[1][21] |
| Smaller RIAs looking for a digital-first custodian | Apex Fintech Solutions | Apex's CEO argues a custodian can profitably serve advisers below $100 million if they self-serve on technology; Apex has about 250 RIA and brokerage clients with nearly $300 billion in custody, and Financial Planning notes custody fees tend to be more expensive for smaller advisers.[9][18] |
How big is BNY's custody business next to State Street, JPMorgan and Northern Trust?
Assets under custody and/or administration as each bank or its reporters published them. JPMorgan reports assets under custody only; dates differ.
| Bank | Assets under custody / administration | As of | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| BNY | $59.4 trillion | March 31, 2026 | Reuters calls BNY the world's largest custodian bank[66][1] |
| State Street | $54.52 trillion | March 31, 2026 | Reuters calls BNY its larger peer[2] |
| JPMorgan Chase | $41.172 trillion (custody only) | December 31, 2025 | Up from $35.280 trillion a year earlier[4] |
| Northern Trust | $18.55 trillion | March 31, 2026 | Up 10% year on year[3] |
| BNY Pershing (wealth) | $3.0 trillion | December 31, 2025 | Average active clearing accounts of 8.4 million[11] |
Who are BNY's biggest competitors?
In custody and asset servicing, State Street, Northern Trust and the securities-services arms of JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup. In wealth custody and clearing, Charles Schwab and Fidelity, with Goldman Sachs, LPL and Apex Fintech Solutions. In collateral management, Euroclear, Clearstream, JPMorgan and BNP Paribas. BNY's own 10-K describes competitors by service rather than by name and adds financial technology firms and stablecoin issuers.[2][3][6][7][10][13][11]
Is State Street bigger than BNY?
No. BNY reported $59.4 trillion of assets under custody and/or administration at March 31, 2026, and State Street $54.52 trillion on the same date; Reuters describes BNY as State Street's larger peer. The two compete directly for mandates and sometimes share them, as with BlackRock's Irish iShares ETFs, split roughly 50-50 between them from 2024.[66][2][5]
Did BNY try to buy Northern Trust?
BNY approached Northern Trust in June 2025 to express interest in a merger, the Wall Street Journal reported, and Northern Trust said it was fully committed to remaining independent. Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to BNY's CEO that the combined firm's custodial market share would exceed 30%, raising antitrust concerns; Northern Trust's CEO said in July 2025 that the bank was completely focused on its own strategy.[14][15]
How does BNY Pershing compare with Schwab and Fidelity?
Pershing is third. WealthManagement.com cites AdvizorPro data that Schwab leads RIA custody across all firm sizes, followed by Fidelity and BNY Pershing (July 2026). Pershing oversees about $3.3 trillion across 8.6 million investor accounts, against more than $4 trillion of advisor assets at Schwab; it began charging some RIAs a custody fee in 2025.[6][7][18]
Is Circle a competitor of BNY?
Partly. BNY is the primary custodian of Circle's USDC reserves and in June 2026 made USDC the first stablecoin on its digital-asset custody platform. But BNY's 10-K lists stablecoin issuers among the non-banks competing with its clearing, settlement and payments businesses, and Circle received final OCC approval on July 10, 2026 for Circle National Trust, a national trust bank for digital-asset custody.[1][11][12]
Who competes with BNY in collateral management and triparty repo?
In Europe, the ECB monitors seven triparty agents against its collateral standards: BNY, Euroclear Bank, Euroclear France, Clearstream Banking Luxembourg, SIX SIS, BNP Paribas and JP Morgan (December 2025). BNY's 10-K counts collateral management among the services where it competes with domestic and international firms.[10][13]
What are alternatives to BNY Pershing for small RIAs?
Schwab, which leads RIA custody across firm sizes and has not yet followed Pershing in charging an RIA custody fee, and digital-first custodians such as Apex Fintech Solutions, whose CEO argues advisers under $100 million can be served profitably if they self-serve. Goldman Sachs is a newer option aimed at advisers with upper-high-net-worth clients.[6][18][9]
- BNY Expands Relationship with Circle and Adds to Institutional-Grade Stablecoin Enablement Services
- State Street's profit rises on robust fee income
- Northern Trust tops profit estimates as robust markets bump fee income; shares rise
- JPMorgan Chase & Co. Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025
- BlackRock splits custody business for Irish-domiciled ETFs
- Goldman's RIA Custody Making Gains on Name Recognition, UHNW Focus
- BNY Takes Aim At Schwab, Fidelity With AI-Powered Wealth Push
- BNY rejigs leadership to strengthen wealth management push
- From small RIAs to megabanks, Apex's business a 'two-sided coin'
- SCoREBOARD: Eleventh Compliance and Progress Report (AMI-SeCo)
- Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2025, Exhibit 13.1 (financial section and risk factors)
- Circle Receives Final OCC Approval to Establish National Trust Bank
- The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2025 (Item 1, Business: Competition)
- Northern Trust commits to independence after WSJ report on potential merger with BNY
- Northern Trust CEO dismisses reports of takeover talks
- Citigroup Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025
- Citi Investor Services Reimagines Market Guide Platform, Harnessing AI to Deliver Timely Intelligence for Decision Makers
- Changes to BNY Pershing's fees are a sign of the times
- $4.2B SteelPeak Wealth Adds BNY Pershing as Custodian
- Citi aims to launch crypto custody in 2026, exploring stablecoin
- Big Banks Pile Into Stablecoin Infrastructure as Wall Street Eyes Crypto Custody
- BNY Mellon will have custody of Ripple's new stablecoin as institutional interest in crypto swells
- While embedding AI 'everywhere,' BNY won't disclose costs
- Quarterly Update Presentation, 1Q 2026
- Unlocking Value with BNY's Enterprise AI Platform
- BNY, America's Oldest Bank, Signs Multiyear Deal With OpenAI
- BNY looks to Google Cloud for agentic AI push
- BNY moves quickly to adopt AI solutions, platforms
- State Street (STT) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript
- The Most Powerful Women in Finance, #19, Ann Fogarty, State Street
- Northern Trust Corp (NTRS) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Highlights
- Northern Trust (NTRS) Q4 2025 Earnings Transcript
- Northern Trust Corporation Form 8-K: Chief Financial Officer David W. Fox, Jr. plans to retire
- Driving AI Use Cases and Adoption (Women in Banking 2025 session)
- 2025 Investor Day Transcript - Full Transcript
- JPMorgan Chase blocks outside AI agents like Muse, Instinct from directly accessing accounts
- JPMorgan CEO Dimon warns customers of 'liability transfer' with AI
- JPMorgan warns of risks to consumers who rely on AI agents
- The Most Powerful Women in Banking Women to Watch, #7, Debopama Sen, Citi
- Charles Schwab and Anthropic to Bring Claude to Independent Registered Investment Advisors
- Charles Schwab's Amy Ruegg: AI Can Make Investing Easier, but Human Expertise Remains Key
- Goldman Sachs staff now write a million gen AI prompts a month
- Marco Argenti gives Goldman Sachs coders an AI helper
- Earnings call transcript: Goldman Sachs tops Q3 2026 estimates as revenue rises
- Goldman's Solomon wants 'clear human accountability' on AI
- AI-Powered Ask Ascend Accelerates Client Tech Integrations
- Apex Fintech Solutions Unveils Apex AI Suite Empowering Business Leaders to Quickly Build Financial Infrastructure, Drive Product Innovation
- Architect Financial Technologies and Apex Fintech Solutions Enter preliminary agreement to Bring New US Perpetual Futures and Options to Apex's Brokerage Network
- BNP Paribas provides its businesses with an LLM as a Service platform to accelerate the industrialization of generative AI use cases.
- BNP Paribas and Mistral AI extend their partnership to support the next phase of generative AI deployment within the Group
- BNP Paribas and Google Cloud Announce New Partnership on Agentic AI and Cloud Innovation
- Second Quarter 2026 Results presentation (23 July 2026)
- BNP Paribas forges agentic AI partnership with Google Cloud
- Circle Launches AI Infrastructure to Power the Agentic Economy
- Introducing Circle Agent Stack: Financial Infrastructure for the Agentic Economy
- Nanopayments powered by Circle Gateway Is Now Live on Mainnet
- Circle Reports Second Quarter 2026 Results
- Release notes - Agent stack - 2026
- AI agents are on a shopping spree: Total payments on Base blockchain eclipse 138 million, Chainalysis finds
- Introducing x402: a new standard for internet-native payments
- Coinbase for Agents adds equities and x402 payments
- Coinbase pushes further into AI payments with new MCP for Base network
- Coinbase (COIN) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript
- 'Pershing' will finally have an RIA referral program, but a consultant (and former Schwab exec) says it's really not much like Fidelity's or Schwab's
- A Decade of AI Innovation: BofA's Virtual Assistant Erica Surpasses 3 Billion Client Interactions
- BNY's profit rises on strong fees, interest income growth
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