BNY

Investment bank · New York, United States

BNY is the world's largest custodian bank, with 59.3 trillion dollars in assets under custody or administration and 2.2 trillion dollars under management at the end of 2025. It is typed here as investment because its business is custody, securities services, clearing and asset management for institutions, not retail or SME banking. Its Payments and Trade unit, formerly Treasury Services, clears USD, EUR and GBP through more than 2,000 correspondent banking relationships and averaged about 249 billion dollars of US dollar payments a day in 2025. It has no small-business checking product; clients are banks, asset managers, corporates and governments. BNY custodies the reserves of Circle's USDC and Ripple's RLUSD and launched on-chain tokenised deposit representations in January 2026.

Legal name: The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation
Regulated by: Federal Reserve, New York State Department of Financial Services, OCC (BNY Mellon, N.A.), PRA/FCA (London branch), National Bank of Belgium / ECB (The Bank of New York Mellon SA/NV), MAS (Singapore branch), DFSA (DIFC branch)
Licence confirmed: yes, on a regulator's own list
Established: 2007
Website: www.bny.com

Scores, 0 to 10

9.0Financial strength & stability

CET1 ratio 11.9%, Tier 1 capital ratio 14.6% and total capital ratio 15.4% at December 31, 2025, with a supplementary leverage ratio of 6.7%. · source

9.0Crypto wallet and custody for a business

BNY's Digital Asset Custody platform has held and transferred bitcoin and ether for select institutional clients in the US since October 2022, and BNY SA/NV was notified as a MiCA CASP for custody and transfers on 20 July 2026 per the ESMA register; it serves institutions rather than small companies. · source

8.0Cross-border payments, FX and multi-currency accounts

SmartPay Global covers 100+ markets, 30+ account currencies and 120+ FX payment currencies via 2,000+ correspondents; FX margins are not published. Payments and Trade, formerly Treasury Services, reported average daily US dollar payment volumes of 248,808 million dollars in 2025 and reaches 100+ markets through 2,000+ correspondent banking relationships, with multicurrency accounts in 30+ currencies. · source

7.5Bitcoin

Institutions can hold and transfer BTC in BNY custody under its New York charter and MiCA authorisation, but BNY does not offer BTC buying or lending. · source

7.5Ethereum

ETH custody and transfer are live, and in August 2026 BNY announced staking on its custody platform with Galaxy, still subject to regulatory review. · source

7.5Stablecoins (USDC, USDT and others)

BNY custodies RLUSD reserves, runs the Dreyfus Stablecoin Reserves Fund for GENIUS Act issuers and launched tokenised deposits in January 2026, serving issuers and institutions rather than stablecoin payouts for ordinary companies. · source

7.0Crypto-friendly bank

Custodies USDC and RLUSD reserves, provides banking-as-a-service to WisdomTree's digital-asset platform, and custodies crypto for ETF issuers after a 2024 SEC review. · source

7.0Fintech companies that need a partner bank

Provides US clearing rails to Singapore payment institution FOMO Pay (2026), core BaaS to WisdomTree (2025) and virtual-card infrastructure with Highnote (2025). · source

7.0On-ramp: buy crypto with fiat

BNY banks digital asset firms: Galaxy is a custody client, and Ripple Prime, WisdomTree and zerohash were early users of its tokenised deposits in January 2026; BNY itself does not sell crypto to clients. · source

7.0Off-ramp: crypto to fiat in a business account

It holds cash and reserves for crypto firms, including USDC and RLUSD reserves, which shows it accepts funds from crypto business routinely under its institutional onboarding. · source

6.5Trade, manufacturing & import-export

Offers letters of credit, trade loans and a Trade Access Network Service (TNAS) that lets other banks process LCs through BNY's SWIFT relationships. · source

6.0Europe (EU, EEA, Switzerland)

BNY Mellon SA/NV is a Belgian-licensed bank with branches in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Dublin, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Milan and Paris, serving institutions only. · source

6.0United States

US-chartered bank offering USD clearing, custody and treasury services to institutions and Fortune 500 corporates, but no SME checking. · source

5.0United Kingdom

London branch at 160 Queen Victoria Street is FCA-regulated and serves financial institutions and corporates, with no UK business current accounts. · source

5.0Asia-Pacific (SG, HK, AU, JP, KR)

Singapore branch is regulated by MAS and there is a Hong Kong branch and trust company, serving banks, asset managers and corporates across the region; there is no retail or SME offering. · source

5.0Best interest on business balances

Institutional clients get liquidity and money-market access through the payments and liquidity franchise; no yield product for small businesses. · source

4.0Canada

Canadian presence is through CIBC Mellon, a 50-50 asset-servicing joint venture with C$3.6 trillion under custody or administration at June 30, 2026. · source

4.0Middle East & Gulf

The Bank of New York Mellon (DIFC Branch) is on the DFSA register and there are Dubai and Abu Dhabi offices, serving institutions only. · source

4.0Latin America, Africa & South Asia

Holds a banking licence in Brazil and representative offices in Colombia, Mexico and Mumbai, focused on asset servicing and correspondent banking. · source

3.0Lowest fees

Pricing is negotiated per institutional client and not published; there is no low-cost business account. · source

3.0Fast digital onboarding

Onboarding is relationship-managed institutional KYC; there is no online account opening for companies. · source

3.0Online businesses: e-commerce and SaaS

No merchant acquiring or marketplace payout product; e-commerce firms are served only as large corporates through Treasury Services. Treasury Services offers USD and multicurrency virtual accounts, but only to corporate and institutional clients. · source

3.0Customer satisfaction

The BNY page on Trustpilot carries two reviews, so there is no usable public score. The CFPB logged 135 complaints in the year to 6 September 2026 and 1,041 in total, and Pershing's NetXInvestor Mobile app holds 1.8 out of 5 from 367 US App Store ratings. · source

3.0Foreign-owned & non-resident companies

BNY banks institutions and corporates only and publishes no onboarding path for small foreign-owned companies. · source

3.0High-risk verticals (iGaming, cannabis, adult, forex)

BNY publishes no prohibited-industries policy for banking clients. · source

2.0Startups & VC-backed companies

No startup banking unit; clients are institutions and large corporates, so a pre-revenue startup cannot open an operating account. · source

1.0Business cards (Visa, Mastercard)

BNY offers custody, payments and treasury services to institutions and lists no business card. · source

1.0Accept crypto payments

BNY offers custody, tokenised deposits and reserve management but no merchant crypto acceptance, checked September 2026. · source

Sources

Built on public information and the BankStore team's own aggregated experience; no confidential client or partner data. Bank Index and BankStore are not banks. This is information, not financial advice.