Update from our US CEO

ABN AMRO Clearing USA LLC (AAC-USA) had a record year in 2023, surpassing our revenuegoals for both net interest income and net fee and commission income while keeping the operating expenses under budget. We made strides in diversifying the revenue streams with new client types and new products.

2023 in perspective

In 2023 there was a focus on global alignment of the data application landscape. We finalised the data center project and introduced the global client and fee tool in the US. Furthermore, efforts were made to improve the use of CRM tooling to provide better service to our clients. New laptops were also rolled out to all employees to improve the employee experience. The goal is to align our technology stack globally for better efficiency and coordination, and more resources than ever were dedicated to information security. When several market participants including vendors and clients were impacted by cyber attacks, AACB was able to continue to operate with minimal disruption for our clients.

Further global alignment through a ‘follow-the-sun’ model has been an important theme in 2023 for our Operations area.

In the Risk and Commercial groups a new global credit framework (One Obligor Exposure) was rolled out to AACBs’ clients, to better manage risk.

Higher interest rates helped drive revenue and AACB continued to benefit from the high volumes on the US exchanges. New smaller and larger clients were onboarded in the core proprietary trading firm sector. Also new retail aggregator clients were onboarded, helping to further grow and diversify our revenue stream.

Good progress was made towards the launch of two new important products in the US, fixed income clearing and routing broker services. With the SEC adopting a new rule requiring mandatory clearing of United States Treasuries, AACB is confident that our fixed income clearing offering will be met with healthy demand. When the SEC approved spot Bitcoin ETFs, the clients could participate in this product from day one.

Additionally, much time and resources were spent preparing for the upcoming mandatory change to go the new T+1 settlement cycle for securities, that will take effect in May 2024.

As ABN AMRO’s non-clearing operations in New York were reduced, AAC-USA took on responsibility for supporting the remaining New York businesses in HR, risk, legal, and compliance.

Built In named AAC-USA among its Best Places to Work award winners. There was a decrease in voluntary employee turnover and an increase in the employee engagement survey score.