Northern Trust has grown the part of its custody business servicing Local Government Pension Schemes in the UK with the addition of US$10 billion in new client assets in 2010.
The company now provides custody and related services to 36 per cent of the Local Government Pension Schemes in the UK.
The announcement follows a series of Local Government Pension Schemes wins announced by Northern Trust underpinning its commitment to the Local Government Pension Schemes market, including the US$1.2 billion London Borough of Wandsworth, the US$65 million Shetland Islands Council and the US$2.2 billion West Sussex County Council, as well as most recently the US$5 billion Lothian Pension Scheme.
“Local government pension schemes are faced with a variety of challenges and concerns – such as changes to the state pension age and how to manage their liabilities,” said Douglas Gee, UK institutional business development manager for asset servicing at Northern Trust.
“The Local Government Pension Schemes market is a key focus for us at Northern Trust and we understand they, like all our pension scheme clients, are looking for solutions including, and beyond, custody, such as access to expertise and information on pensions, investments and government and regulatory issues, as well as proprietary research into market-related issues such as risk management and fiduciary management – all of which we can provide.”
Northern Trust now also provides securities lending services to close to 20 percent of all Local Government Pension Schemes clients in the UK and in 2010 increased to 50 the number of global markets in which it provides securities lending services.
“We see an increasing demand from the Local Government Pension Schemes market for tailored securities lending solutions that combine a strong risk and control environment, excellent revenue performance and transparent reporting,” said Mark Snowdon, senior sales and relationship manager for Securities Lending at Northern Trust.
