Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance has appointed Northern Trust to provide custody and fund administration services to its $1 billion in assets.
The appointment is reflective of the bank's aim to establish market strength in the insurance sector, and brings its total assets under custody for insurance clients to more than $500 billion.
Although the Mitsui Sumitomo deal represents a small part of their insurance custody business, the appointment follows a string of high profile mandates, including the recent New Zealand Superannuation Fund deal. Profits at the firm rose by %15 this quarter.
Peter Glynne-Percy, chief investment officer of Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance in London, said: “We were looking for an established provider with a strong track record in supporting insurance companies of our size and complexity. Northern Trust, through their range of specialised solutions, demonstrated that they could not only support our requirements, but also help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operation by taking away the administrative burden of compiling and cleansing data.”
In addition to custody and related services, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance required a centralised solution to record and store information from its individual investment managers in one location and integrate this data into the corporate general ledger.
Andrew Melville, head of insurance product and strategy for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Northern Trust, said: “Particularly as insurance companies face increasing regulatory and reporting requirements, we see a heightened demand for solutions around data compilation and aggregation.”
.jpg)