State Street third-quarter 2026 earnings came in at $1.09 billion on Wednesday, Oct. 14, as the Boston custody bank reported record fee lines, record client assets and a 26.6% jump in profit from a year earlier. The company, headquartered at One Congress Street, posted diluted earnings of $3.69 per share for the quarter that ended Sept. 30.
State Street Q3 2026 Results at a Glance
These figures come from the company’s earnings release and its Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 14. All comparisons are with the third quarter of 2025.
- Total revenue: $4.004 billion, up 12.9%.
- Net income: $1.090 billion, up 26.6% from $861 million.
- Diluted EPS: $3.69, up 32.7% from $2.78.
- Fee revenue: $3.140 billion, up 11%.
- Net interest income: $864 million, up 20.8%.
- Total expenses: $2.620 billion, up 7.6%.
- Assets under custody and/or administration: a record $59.2 trillion as of Sept. 30, up 15%.
- Assets under management: a record $6.3 trillion, up 16%.
- Capital returned to shareholders: $651 million, made up of $400 million in buybacks and $251 million in dividends ($0.92 a share).
Revenue grew faster than costs for what Chairman and CEO Ron O’Hanley called the company’s eleventh straight quarter of positive operating leverage, excluding notable items. Pre-tax margin rose to 34.6%, from 31.1% a year earlier. Return on equity was 16.4%.
What Drove the Quarter
The biggest gains came from the businesses that hold, track and manage money for pension funds, mutual funds and insurers. Servicing fees rose about 10% to $1.49 billion, helped by new clients and higher market levels. Management fees, earned mostly by the State Street Investment Management arm and its SPDR exchange-traded funds, rose 20% to $797 million. Long-term funds took in $69 billion of net new money, but cash funds lost $62 billion, leaving total net inflows at $7 billion.
Foreign exchange trading revenue climbed 17% from a year ago to $427 million on record client volumes. It fell about 14% from the second quarter, which the company tied to a lower mix of emerging-markets business. Securities finance revenue rose 9%, and software services, which includes the Charles River trading platform, rose 5%. “Other” fee revenue fell 29% because of market-related adjustments.
Net interest income, the gap between what the bank earns on its holdings and what it pays on deposits, rose 21% from a year earlier as the net interest margin widened to 1.12%. It was roughly flat compared with the second quarter.
On the cost side, compensation and benefits rose 8% on higher incentive pay, new hires and raises. Spending on information systems and communications rose 15% on technology investment. Occupancy costs fell 4%, which the company attributed to shrinking its real estate footprint.
New Business, a Latin America Deal and a Bond Redemption
State Street said it won $68 million in new annual servicing fees during the quarter and $429 billion in new servicing assets. It also has $332 million in servicing fees and $2.98 trillion in assets already signed but not yet installed, which the company counts as future business. The release also announced:
- An agreement to buy the Santander CACEIS Latam Securities Services joint venture, subject to regulatory approvals. Terms were not disclosed in the release.
- Its first Wealth Services mandate, with what it described as one of the largest registered investment advisors in the United States.
- The redemption of all $500 million of its 1.684% senior notes due 2027 on Nov. 18, 2026, to be paid with cash on hand.
- The election of Alexander Vollert as an independent director on Oct. 9.
The bank’s standardized common equity tier 1 ratio, a key measure of its capital cushion, was 11.0% at quarter-end. That is down from 11.3% a year earlier but up from 10.8% in June.
Why It Matters for Boston
State Street is one of the largest private employers headquartered in the city. It employs about 51,000 people worldwide, according to the release, and moved its headquarters into One Congress, the tower above the Government Center Garage site, in recent years. Its results are a useful read on the health of Boston’s financial services cluster at a time when the city’s broader Boston job market has been mixed and downtown landlords are watching big tenants closely, as covered in our report on record Boston office rents. The quarter also follows other big moves by Boston-based companies, including the Schneider Electric deal for PTC.
The release did not give local headcount figures or any new plans for its Boston offices.
Our Take
This section is analysis, not news. State Street’s quarter shows how much a strong stock market helps a custody bank: higher asset values lift fees almost automatically. The more telling signs are the ones less tied to markets, like the $68 million in new servicing wins and the first wealth-services mandate. The $62 billion in cash-fund outflows and the drop in FX revenue from the second quarter are reminders that not every line moved up. Investors will look for whether those gains hold if markets cool.
What Executives Said
“The strength of our third-quarter results demonstrates continued momentum and disciplined execution across our global franchises,” O’Hanley said in the release. He said the company enters the fourth quarter “with strong momentum, a clear strategy, and confidence” in meeting its medium-term targets. Executives discussed the results on a public conference call at 11 a.m. ET on Oct. 14; a replay is available on State Street’s investor relations website for about a month.
Sources
- State Street: Third-Quarter 2026 Financial Results (Oct. 14, 2026)
- State Street Form 8-K and Exhibit 99.1 earnings release, via StockTitan
- State Street: 3Q 2026 Earnings Conference Call
- State Street Reports Third Quarter 2026 EPS of $3.69 (Form 8-K), via Public
Photo: State Street Bank, One Congress, Boston, by Daderot, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0 public domain dedication). Cropped.