South African Win for State Street

Nedbank, part of Nedcor banking group, and State Street Bank and Trust Company, the principal subsidiary of State Street Corporation and the leading US provider of services to public funds, announced today that South Africa's Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF)

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Nedbank, part of Nedcor banking group, and State Street Bank and Trust Company, the principal subsidiary of State Street Corporation and the leading US provider of services to public funds, announced today that South Africa’s Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) has appointed the Nedcor/State Street alliance to provide investment administration services.The GEPF is South Africa’s largest retirement (public) fund with assets of approximately ZAR 230 billion (USD 23 bn). The appointment calls for a joint State Street and Nedbank team to service GEPF out of the alliance offices in Johannesburg. Services will include investment accounting, compliance monitoring and performance measurement.

“The GEPF is honoured to be associated with Nedbank and State Street, whose combined expertise will render a world class service to all GEPF members,” said Peet Maritz, the chief director of pension fund administration for the National Treasury of South Africa. Nedcor’s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) initiatives played a significant role in the GEPF appointment. These initiatives ensure that an empowerment enterprise will provide all IT hardware for the GEPF account and that Nedcor will seek to form a mutually beneficial partnership with a BEE financial company in 2002.

“We are pleased that GEPF has selected the alliance,” said Rob Wassenaar, General Manager in Nedbank’s Corporate Banking division. “With the continued virtualisation of the industry, shrinking trade cycles and shareholders’ high expectations, we are fortunate that such an important participant in the retirement funds arena recognises the value of meeting these demands with a sophisticated infrastructure that can keep pace with the ever-increasing complexities of global markets. We look forward to building a strong partner relationship with GEPF.”

“State Street and Nedbank are committed to providing services vital to meeting GEPF’s particular investment needs,” said Jeff Conway, senior vice president and managing director of State Street Investor Services in the UK. “Our flexible approach gives each of our clients the best means of meeting their clients’ needs, and is the driving force behind the alliance’s leadership position in this market.”

State Street and Nedcor Bank formed their alliance in May of 1998 to supply integrated global and domestic investment services, including custody, investment accounting, performance and analytics and securities lending. Today, assets under custody and administration have grown to ZAR 460 billion. In the years since introducing the concept of global master custodian to the South African market, the alliance partners have leveraged their collective expertise, technology and economies of scale to deliver a broad range of non-custodial services on a fully integrated platform.

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