The network at 140: what a correspondent relationship costs to keep

At the end of January 2026 the group held 140 correspondent and counterparty relationships across 52 countries. The figure is usually quoted as a measure of reach. It is better understood as a running cost. Each relationship carries an annual review, a sanctions screen, an ownership check, a documentation refresh and a connectivity test, and none of that work scales with the volume passing through it. A relationship clearing four payments a year costs almost exactly what one clearing four thousand costs.

The register holds 48 correspondent banks, 19 custodians, 12 fund administrators, 11 trust companies, nine payments institutions, eight clearing agents, seven reinsurers, six prime brokers, six trading venues, six data providers, four development finance institutions and four family office networks. The bank relationships carry settlement. The rest carry a function the group cannot perform for itself in a jurisdiction where it holds a registration or a mandate. Every entry has a named relationship owner inside the group.

Maintaining one relationship costs about US$34,000 a year in review, screening, documentation and testing, before a single transaction fee is paid. Across the register that is close to US$4.8 million. Twenty-one arrangements clear fewer than twenty payments a year each and cost the same as every other. Those 21 are being closed during 2026 under the first phase of Programme Latitude, and the capacity released pays for deeper arrangements where the money actually moves.

Depth is measured in settlement currencies rather than in counterparties. The group settles in 14 currencies today and will settle in 21 by the end of 2026, without adding an intermediary between itself and the market. Adding a currency through an existing deep relationship costs documentation. Adding one through a new counterparty costs a full onboarding, another annual review and another point of failure. The arithmetic favours depth until depth becomes concentration.

That limit is set explicitly. No single correspondent may carry more than 22 per cent of group settlement volume, and no single correspondent may be the only route to a currency the group settles in. Six countries account for most of the money and each has at least two independent routes. Where a second route does not exist, the group keeps a relationship it would otherwise close, and the cost of that relationship is recorded as resilience rather than as reach.

Closing a relationship is not a letter. Balances move, standing instructions are cancelled at both ends, the register entry is archived under the records policy, and a final reconciliation is signed on both sides. The 21 closures planned for this year will take an average of four months each. The register will still end 2026 at 155 relationships, because 36 new arrangements open in the same period. Reach and depth are not opposites, but both are paid for.

Published 2026-02-17 by the Commercial Finance division. Research is prepared for eligible counterparties and does not constitute advice.