Foreign & Colonial Management, the London-based fund manager, has entered exclusive discussions with Mellon Global Securities Services, with a view to outsourcing its institutional administration functions to the American bank.
If the negotiations go well, Mellon will take on the back-office investment administration for all of F&C’s institutional business as well as the employment of 95 of its back-office staff. from 1 September this year. The outsourcing mandate will cover London based investment administration only.
“Since 1989, F&C has used Mellon for key back office support in its retail business,” says Robert Jenkins, Chief Executive, F&C Management comments. “This agreement extends that partnership to the support of our institutional business. Our clients will indirectly gain access to cutting edge technology and the employees involved will be joining an organisation for whom back office processing is a core business. A number of leading asset management houses have already made such a move and I have no doubt that many competitors will soon follow. By acting now, we have been able to secure preferential treatment. Meanwhile, we will be able to focus on our main objective, which is portfolio management”.
F&C’s decision to enter into exclusive discussions with Mellon builds on an existing mandate to provide transfer agency and fund accounting services to F&C, which has been in place since 1989. The decision is founded on F&C’s confidence in the robustness of Mellon’s technology platforms and its past experience of Mellon’s commitment to a high level of client servicing.
“We are delighted to have this opportunity to extend our existing relationship with F&C through this mandate,” says Jack Klinck, Chairman, Mellon Europe. “It is an example of how we strive to work in partnership with our clients to align strategic objectives. Mellon is one of only a handful of service providers who can genuinely claim to support the entire investment management continuum. The skills and experience of the F&C team would provide a great complement to those of Mellon, while F&C and its clients will benefit from significant ongoing investment in new systems and services in order to continue to provide efficient administration.”
F&C Management manages Euros 88 billion in assets for both institutions and individuals in the UK and Europe. It is best known as a manager of investment trusts: its flagship Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust was the first and remains the largest of its kind.
Mellon has $2.9 trillion in assets under management, administration or custody, including $566 billion under management. It provides fund management outsourcing services to 26 clients with combined assets under administration of $360 billion.