Wachovia has announced that its securities lending business, Metropolitan West Securities, has been appointed as the third-party securities lending agent for the State of New Mexico Public Employees Retirement Association.
MetWest will be providing lending services for the $9.6 billion fund. The focus of the program will be on international and domestic equity portfolios as well as U.S. government portfolios.
“We selected MetWest because they do not rely entirely on a computer driven queuing system to ensure equitable treatment of client portfolios. Instead, MetWest employs a more hands-on analytical approach to monitoring client utilizations and performance. This approach is validated by virtue of the fact that we have doubled the amount of securities on loan within the first month,” said Robert E. Gish, Director of Investments, State of New Mexico PERA.
“We developed our systems to not only ensure equitable treatment among client portfolios, but also to enhance overall performance. MetWest is pleased to provide our securities lending services to the state of New Mexico PERA, and we look forward to a productive relationship,” said Lou Molinari, president of MetWest.