Ok, first a mover advantage coupled with the "institutional...

Ok, first a mover advantage coupled with the "institutional imperative" of the day (outsourcing "non-core" activities) certainly gives some sense to CPU's current position (in a space where customers are supposed to be sticky).

Nevertheless, and just to continue to show my ignorance here, I'm asking myself: "What are the competitive advantages of the players in this space?".

All the players enjoy high switching costs (presumably), as already discussed. Technology aside, I don't see much in the way of substitute threats. After all, whatever value a share registry might add (or not) in function, there must considerable value in simply being a third party that appears independent from both the buyer (of equity) and the supplier (of equity).

I would imagine that if there is value in just being an independent third party entity, and that if you represent a small proportion of your customers operating costs, that you will carry more credibility as peopled entity, then as a completely faceless process. Perhaps.

But I'm also thinking, given how scalable this function is (if you can win enough new customers), that for the gorilla, scale must provide huge cost advantages (regardless of the layers of management). So I'm staggered that CPU is not the lowest cost provider, and I"m doubly staggered that teeny-weeny ASW has a much lower cost ratio.