Basis of Presentation (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2014

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Recent Accounting Developments

Recent Accounting Developments:

In April 2014, the FASB issued an amendment to GAAP that revises the criteria for the treatment and disclosure of discontinued operations. The amendment allows entities to have significant continuing involvement and continuing cash flows with the discontinued operation, but requires additional disclosure for discontinued operations and disclosure for disposals deemed to be material that do not meet the definition of a discontinued operation. The presentation and disclosure requirements are effective, for State Street, beginning on January 1, 2015, and are required to be applied prospectively to discontinued operations occurring after that date.

In January 2014, the FASB issued an amendment to GAAP that allows an investor in an affordable housing project, if the project meets certain defined conditions, to amortize the cost of their investment in proportion to the tax credits and other tax benefits they receive, and reflect it as part of income tax expense rather than as revenue from operations. The amendment is effective, for State Street, for interim and annual periods beginning after December 15, 2014, with early adoption permitted, and must be applied retrospectively. At this time, we have not chosen to early-adopt the amendment. Our adoption of the amendment is not expected to have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements.

Asset-Backed Securitization Trusts

We invest in various forms of asset-backed securities, which we carry in our investment securities portfolio. These asset-backed securities meet the GAAP definition of asset securitization entities, which are considered to be variable interest entities, or VIEs, as defined by GAAP. We are not considered to be the primary beneficiary of these VIEs, as defined by GAAP, since we do not have control over their activities. Additional information about our asset-backed securities is provided in note 3.

Tax-Exempt Investment Program

Tax-Exempt Investment Program:

In the normal course of our business, we structure and sell certificated interests in pools of tax-exempt investment-grade assets, principally to our mutual fund clients. We structure these pools as partnership trusts, and the assets and liabilities of the trusts are recorded in our consolidated statement of condition as investment securities available for sale and other short-term borrowings. We may also provide liquidity and re-marketing services to the trusts. As of March 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013, we carried investment securities available for sale, composed of securities related to state and political subdivisions, with a fair value of $2.33 billion as of each date, and other short-term borrowings of $1.93 billion and $1.95 billion, respectively, in our consolidated statement of condition in connection with these trusts.

We transfer assets to the trusts from our investment securities portfolio at adjusted book value, and the trusts finance the acquisition of these assets by selling certificated interests issued by the trusts to third-party investors and to State Street as residual holder. These transfers do not meet the de-recognition criteria defined by GAAP, and therefore, are recorded in our consolidated financial statements. The trusts had a weighted-average life of approximately 6.3 years as of March 31, 2014, compared to approximately 6.5 years as of December 31, 2013.

Under separate legal agreements, we provide standby bond-purchase agreements to these trusts and, with respect to certain securities, letters of credit. Our commitments to the trusts under these standby bond-purchase agreements and letters of credit totaled $1.96 billion and $684 million, respectively, as of March 31, 2014, none of which was utilized as of that date. In the event that our obligations under these agreements are triggered, no material impact to our consolidated results of operations or financial condition is expected to occur, because the securities are already recorded at fair value in our consolidated statement of condition.