State Street and New York based fund manager J. & W. Seligman announced today that they have signed a letter of intent to expand their existing relationship to include outsourcing of operations support for Seligman’s $25 billion in assets under management.
State Street has had a relationship with Seligman for more than 14 years, providing fund accounting, fund administration and custody for Seligman’s U.S. based and offshore investment companies and other collective investment products, totaling nearly $16 billion in assets. The expanded relationship will include trade support and settlement, portfolio record keeping, custodian communications for settlements, and systems network and applications support, all provided through State Street’s Investment Manager Solutions (IMS) business. In addition, State Street will provide administrative support to Seligman’s managed account program through its Wealth Manager Services business.
State Street intends to offer positions to Seligman staff assigned to operations that are scheduled to be outsourced. Seligman will retain all functions that involve client service and contact.
“We are delighted to be expanding our relationship with Seligman,” said Ronald E. Logue, president and chief operating officer of State Street Corporation. “Investment managers need solutions that leverage business and technological expertise in an intelligent and efficient way – and that integrate processes across the investment spectrum. By outsourcing operations to State Street, Seligman will benefit from access to our enterprise technologies, speed to market for new products, risk mitigation and improved service quality.”
According to John Clark, managing director and head of Operations and Systems for Seligman, “State Street’s assumption of our operations can deliver efficiencies of scale and service that should provide our clients with faster processing, more robust reporting capabilities and global scale, while maintaining the overall quality they have come to expect from Seligman. Our expanded partnership with State Street also will enable us to focus more attention on investment management and client service, where we add the most value. “
This latest deal is confirmation that State Street is setting the pace in fund management out-sourcing. In August 2000, the Boston-based bank entered into an agreement with PIMCO to service $180 billion in assets under management. The following February, Scottish Widows appointed State Street to provide custody, trustee and investment administration services to 816 life and pension funds and unit trusts worth 78 billion in total. The transfer and integration was completed in November 2001.