Northern Trust has won the contract to act as custodian for the $1.2 billion Virginia Commonwealth Investment Management Company.
The mandate will cover all global custodian duties for the Virginia Commonwealth University endowment fund and other university assets.
In a statement announcing the win, William Lee, chief operating officer at Virginia Commonwealth Investment Management Company, said Northern Trust was chosen because of its “innovative” custody platform and “expertise servicing alternative investments”.
Lee said that the investment group was particularly impressed with the broad range of investment services and the standard of technology showcased.
Pete Cherecwich, head of Corporate & Institutional Services (Americas) at Northern Trust, said “Northern Trust is honoured to add Virginia Commonwealth Investment Management Company to our roster of clients. The addition… is testament to our culture of client-focused solutions and dedication to understanding our clients’ business needs and objectives.
“We remain committed to continued product and technology innovation and service excellence to benefit our clients.”
Northern Trust has assets under custody of $6.2 trillion worldwide and offices in 19 states across the US and 20 locations outside of the US.
The news comes a day after the financial services group also confirmed it was expanding third party services it offers through its Correspondent Trust Services division through a tie-up with Broadridge’s Matrix Financial Solutions group.
Correspondent banks will be able to trade mutual funds, exchange traded funds and collective investment trusts with some 650 asset management fund groups with Northern Trust.
In a statement, it said the deal meant that its clients would now be able to reduce the number of vendors they require because they can now consolidate underlying client assets in one place.