State Street has been appointed custodian to the Weir Group pension fund in the UK.
State Street will provide global custody, fund accounting, foreign exchange and cash management services for The Weir Group’s £400 million pension fund. WM Company, State Street’s Edinburgh-based investment performance and analytics business, will also extend its provision of performance measurement services to the entire fund.
“After a competitive selection process, we appointed State Street as our preferred providerto provide investment services for our pension scheme following after a rigorous competitive selection process and sound advice from the Government Actuaries Department as custodian because of its expertise in servicing U.K. pension funds,” says Philip Batty, Group Pensions Manager for The Weir Group PLC. “The opportunity to take advantage of State Street’s value-added services in the future was another factor in our decision.”
In the UK, State Street now claims a 30 percent market share in servicing collective investments and an 11 percent market share in servicing pensions.
“We are delighted to add the Weir Group Pension Scheme to our growing list of clients, while offering additional investment services to our existing clients,” adds Alasdair Reid, State Street’s head of sales for investor services in the UK market. “As the pension landscape continues to seek out experienced providers with a proven history of success, we are confident that we will emerge as the clear choice.”
Two of the largest UK pension fund clients of Deutsche GSS, which was acquired by State Street in 2002, have also recently migrated tom the bank’s platform: the BP Pension Fund with £10 billion in assets, and the £6 billion Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).
“The fact that we are exceeding our integration goals in the UK for the GSS business, in addition to continuing to win mandates from new clients, clearly indicates that we haven’t skipped a beat in client service or product innovation while growing to be the leading investment service provider in Europe,” says Jeff Conway, senior vice president and head of State Street’s investment servicing business in northern Europe, the Middle East and South Africa.