Scandinavia's largest insurance company the Stockholm-based SPP, with total assets of over Skr275bn($21bn), has appointed Chase Global Investor Services as global custodian for its $9bn portfolio of non-Swedish equities and bonds.

The mandate is for global custody and reporting services. Steffan Elmgren of SPP Investment Management, which manages the assets of the group, says the company is currently upgrading its own systems and when that process is complete next spring, it will decide on what additional reporting and other services it may want from Chase.

SPP is developing its third party asset management business and Elmgren says it will be offering Chase's services to its future client base.

The new agreement came into operation some weeks ago and the contract is on an open-end basis. Chase replaced Barclays Global Securities Services, which previously handled the custody of SPP's non domestic assets.

Jeremy Jewitt, Chase's head of glo-bal investor services in Europe says: This decision by such a prominent Swedish company vindicates the ef-fort we have been putting into developing our capability in the region.""