UK – The Lothian Pension Fund has awarded a £1.3bn (€1.9bn) global custody mandate to Citigroup Global Transaction Services – resulting in a loss for the incumbent Bank of New York.

According to a spokesperson for the £2bn Edinburgh-based fund, the Bank of New York had the mandate for five years. The bank declined to comment on the loss.

Lothian advised itself regarding the custody change, and it involved a tendering process.

“We were particularly impressed by Citigroup’s cost effective and secure solutions to our custody and related services needs,” said an LPF spokesperson.

GTS will now take over the custody handling and stock lending services for all LPF assets excluding UK equities, which are administered by an in-house team.

According to a Citigroup spokesperson, the assets are based across the globe in major and emerging markets.

“We are delighted to have been selected by Lothian Pension Fund,” said Mark Kelley, managing director and head of fund services for Europe at GTS.

“We look forward to working with LPF and delivering on our service commitments.”

Administered by the City of Edinburgh Council and part of the Local Government Pension Scheme, the LPF is a funded statutory scheme with defined benefits.

It has 62,000 members, 20,000 pensioners and provides pension benefits to more than 120 employers in and around Edinburgh.