Global Investor Services (GIS), the global custody division of HSBC, has secured its first contract from Wolverhampton City Council, administrator of the West Midlands Pension Fund, for its newly launched transaction cost measurement service (TCMS).
The appointment endorses GIS’ intention to provide trustees and sponsors of pension funds with information products that help them to exercise prudent, effective control over the administration of their investment portfolios.
GIS has developed TCMS, a new product, in conjunction with GSCS Limited. TCMS measures execution costs on all UK equity transactions and compares these against a large universe of similar transactions. The reports are focused and simple to understand. Clients achieve cost effective compliance with the voluntary principles issued by HM Treasury following the “Myners” review of institutional investment in the UK last year. GIS expects other pension fund trustees to invest in this innovative product.
Brian Bailey, Co-ordinating Director for Finance and Physical Resources for the West Midlands Pension Fund said: “We anticipate this service will be a useful addition to the range of monitoring data available to us, assisting in ensuring investment managers undertake investment on terms that fully reflect the Fund’s interests”.
Dave Green, Industry Head, Pensions at GIS said: “We are delighted that one of our most prestigious clients will be the first to enjoy the benefits offered by TCMS. This product underlines our commitment to working closely with our pension fund clients to assist them through the various industry challenges they face”.
In an interview with GC.com, Robert Kay, founder of GSCS, said: “Pension funds around the world are increasingly required, whether by regulators or best practice to monitor transaction costs. The service developed by GSCS in conjunction with HSBC for U.K. funds is intended to be straightforward, easy to use and cost effective even for smaller plans. We believe similar approaches will become more popular even in the U.S. where TCM services are more mature but still considered by many to be too complicated to be practical.”