Northern Trust has been appointed by the Dyfed Pension Fund, administered by Carmarthenshire County Council, to provide global custody and investment accounting services for GP£1.2 billion (approximately US$2 billion) in pension fund assets.
This is the latest appointment in a series of Local Government Pension Scheme wins announced by Northern Trust.
The council, which appointed Northern Trust following a competitive tender, was looking to extend the services it received from its custodian.
"We selected Northern Trust as they demonstrated expertise in core asset servicing for UK pension funds, including investment accounting, which will be a new service for the Fund,” said Anthony Parnell, treasury & pension investments manager at Carmarthenshire County Council.
“Furthermore, Northern Trust has a comprehensive understanding of the Local Government Pension Schemes market in the UK and we were impressed by its proprietary online reporting portal, Passport. Alongside a competitive fee schedule, these were key criteria in this appointment."
"We are delighted to have been appointed by Carmarthenshire County Council," said Penelope Biggs, head of the Institutional Investor Group at Northern Trust. “Northern Trust services over one third of all Local Government Pension Schemes in the UK and this latest appointment underpins our continued commitment to this market. We understand our Local Government Pension Schemes clients have specific requirements and our Retirement Solutions Practice has been specifically designed to provide all our UK pension fund clients with insight into regulatory issues and trends affecting them, in addition to delivering innovative asset servicing solutions that meet their specific requirements.”
Northern Trust recently announced it grew 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 Scheme market in the UK.
