Hampshire County Council has appointed Northern Trust as its first global custodian, to provide custody, performance measurement and securities lending services to its 2.8 billion pension fund.
In addition, Northern Trust Global Investments (NTGI), the asset management arm of Northern Trust, has been appointed as transition manager.
“We are delighted to be working with Northern Trust, which has been appointed following a rigorous selection process,” says the Leader of Hampshire County Council and Chairman of the Hampshire Pension Fund Panel, Councillor Ken Thornber.
Northern Trust says it now provides custody services to approximately one third of all UK local government pension schemes (LGPS). The bank has set up a dedicated service team “focusing on meeting the unique requirements within this sector,” the bank said in a statement.
Jemma Broadgate, head of UK and Ireland pension fund custody sales at Northern Trust, says the new mandate demonstrates the commitment of the bank to local authority pension fund market in the UK. “We look forward to working with Hampshire County Council as we continue to increase our LGPS market share, through the delivery of high-quality solutions that cater to the specific requirements of this sector,” she says.
At 30 September 2006, Northern Trust had total assets under custody of US$3.3 trillion, and assets under investment management of US$667 billion.