Say it quietly, but things might be looking up for custodians despite the stubbornly low interest rate environment making them sweat for every basis point.

Here are the key first quarter results from the top three custodian banks published last week - note the double-digit gains on investment servicing, which include fees for basic custody, fund administration and value-added services such as foreign exchange and securities lending revenues. These have risen significantly at the two largest firms, well ahead of the rise in assets under custody.