KB Kookmin Bank received the highest marks to become among the “top rated” custodian banks for the seventh year in a row in an annual service evaluation by a British magazine.

The Global Custodian has assessed the services of custodian banks worldwide since 1990, becoming a key trade journal for reference when global financial institutions and institutional investors choose their custodian banks.

A custodian bank is a specialized financial institution responsible for safeguarding a firm or individual’s financial assets and is not necessarily engaged in traditional commercial or retail banking such as mortgage or personal lending.

The latest service analysis looked into 13 categories including the computerized systems, settlements, management of accounts and properties, foreign exchange and reporting as well as the size of assets kept under each bank’s custody and its clients.

KB Kookmin had also been selected the best custodian bank in Korea for two consecutive years by Hong Kong’s Asian Investor magazine in March.

“We will try to become a global custodian bank that leads Asia’s finance by continuing to foster specialists and improve the computerized systems and work process for custody business,” a KB Kookmin official said.

(sophie@heraldcorp.com)