Santander and Crédit Agricole plan to merge custody and asset servicing arms

Spain's Banco Santander and France's Crédit Agricole have announced their plans to merge their custody and asset servicing operations to create a business that could have around €3.34bn of assets under custody.   Santander Bank said in a joint statement the new business would have €1.83bn in assets under administration forming a truly global player with enhanced growth prospects. Crédit Agricole will own 69.5% of the merged unit and Santander will hold the remaining 30.5%. The majority stake taken by the French bank will keep the brand name of its existing asset management arm Caceis....