Northern Trust grew the part of its custody business servicing local government pension schemes in the UK with the addition of $10 billion in new client assets in 2010, the firm says, claiming it now provides custody and related services to 36% of that market in the country.
The announcement follows a series of local government pension scheme wins announced by Northern Trust, including the $1.2 billion London Borough of Wandsworth, the $65 million Shetland Islands Council and the $2.2 billion West Sussex County Council, as well as most recently the $5 billion Lothian Pension Scheme.
Local government pension schemes are faced with a variety of challenges and concerns such as changes to the state pension age and how to manage their liabilities, says Douglas Gee, UK institutional business development manager for asset servicing at Northern Trust. The local government pension schemes market is a key focus for us at Northern Trust and we understand they, like all our pension scheme clients, are looking for solutions including, and beyond, custody, such as access to expertise and information on pensions, investments and government and regulatory issues, as well as proprietary research into market-related issues such as risk management and fiduciary management all of which we can provide.
Northern Trust says it also provides securities lending services to nearly 20% of local government pension scheme clients in the UK and in 2010 increased to 50 the number of global markets in which it provides securities lending services.
We see an increasing demand from the local government pension schemes market for tailored securities lending solutions that combine a strong risk and control environment, excellent revenue performance and transparent reporting, says Mark Snowdon, senior sales and relationship manager for securities lending at Northern Trust.