JPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services (JPMWSS) announced that is has been appointed to act as fund accounting agent for Aviva Funds Services (AFS), the Luxembourg administration company of Morley Fund Management (Morley).
This latest deal follows the move last year by Morley and JPMWSS to establish an administration service for fund managers and their clients. As part of the 2004 deal, Morley transferred 190 employees to JPMWSS and migrated to the firm’s HiPortfolio-based investment operations platform.
Morley is the UK-based asset management division of Aviva plc, the UK’s largest life assurance group, and manages £128 billion (as at 31/12/2004) of assets. AFS has €3 billion of assets under administration in Luxembourg.
The deal will involve the transfer of all fund accounting activities undertaken by AFS across a number of fund ranges to the Luxembourg operation of JPMWSS, including eight AFS staff. The transfer enables AFS to focus on its core business of fund distribution and shareholder services.
JPMWSS has been the preferred service provider of AFS since 1991, when its predecessor Commercial Union entered the market.
Ramy Bourgi, business executive for JPMWSS in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said, “We are delighted to have been awarded further business by Aviva Funds Services. As well as demonstrating the quality of our service, this deal elevates our position as the preferred service provider for Luxembourg-based funds, and consolidates our recent confirmation as number one administrator in Luxembourg (Fitzrovia 2005).”