State Street Corporation has been re-appointed by the National Pension Service of Korea (NPS) to provide back-office services.
State Street will provide back-office services for a further three years. State Street has also been awarded NPS’s first-ever middle-office mandate.
Since 2013, State Street has been providing custody, fund accounting, performance and analytics, mandate compliance and securities lending services to NPS’ global equity portfolio.
Following NPS’ decision to outsource its middle-office operations for the first time, State Street will provide Investment Book of Record (IBOR) record keeping.
As well as this, State Street will provide transaction management and trade processing services to all NPS’ overseas investments, State Street revealed.
Ian Martin, head of global services and global exchange, Asia-Pacific, State Street, said: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with NPS, the world’s third largest pension fund.”
“NPS has been expanding into new asset classes and geographies in the past few years, to tap into new sources of alpha and continue to deliver for its members.”
Martin continued: “However, this has naturally added complexity to the fund’s custody and administration needs.”
“Our two organisations have forged a strong, effective partnership during the last five years, which has adapted over time to address these evolving needs. Our reappointment is a testament to the success of that partnership.”
Martin added: “The new middle-office mandate will allow NPS to have a lean operation which will help to enhance returns for its members.”
“It is the first time NPS has outsourced all its middle-office operations. This significant decision to combine middle-office and back-office operations will improve straight-through processing and data integration, which will reduce risk and increase speed. We look forward to partnering with NPS to streamline operations to improve efficiency.”
