Northern Trust has revealed that its UK pension fund client base grew dramatically in 2010, with 15 new clients and $43.9 billion in new assets under custody.
Northern Trust now provides custody and related services to approximately 34% of the top 200 pension funds in the UK and 36% of all UK Local Government Pension Schemes.
We are pleased to continue expanding our footprint in the UK pensions arena, said Penelope Biggs, head of Northern Trusts Institutional Investor Group in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Whilst we experienced great success in 2009, welcoming 10 new UK pension fund clients and US$13 billion in new assets under custody, 2010 has really built on that success in terms of the further relationships we have built across the UK pensions industry.
To support Northern Trusts expanding UK pension fund client base, particularly in the Local Government Pension Scheme market, it has appointed Ray Bloom to head up a team of relationship managers dedicated to serving the needs of local government pension schemes. Bloom joined Northern Trust in 2005 and has extensive experience working with Northern Trusts pension fund clients.
The UK pensions market is a key market for us and goes to the very core of why we established our Retirement Solutions Practice in 2009, Biggs adds. We understand the challenges facing UK pension funds and their trustees, today and through our Retirement Solutions Practice offer our pension fund clients expertise and insights into regulatory changes as well as updates on trends and challenges affecting them. Beyond this, our Local Government Pension Scheme clients face different challenges to our UK corporate pension fund clients, and we have appointed Ray to support these as we continue to evolve our services and solutions to support our clients growth.
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