State Street Bank Europe (SSBE) has been set up in London to be the headquarters of the US bank's European operations. The new bank will operate under the provisions the EU's single market legislation.

Our strategy is to bring together all our products and services in Eur-ope," says Stefan Gavell, who will be one of three managing directors. "It will become a platform for delivering services in Europe."

He points out that a bank has the widest powers of all for cross border activities. "We want to be ahead of the curve and have a structure that can meet with most regulatory environments."

The new bank, which is a subsidiary of the State Street Corporation in Boston, will act as a holding company for different European entities. "Most of our European operations will be-come branches or subsidiaries of SSBE, and so come under the um-brella. This includes our asset management operations in the UK." But due to local requirements, some areas may have to operate separately.

Gavell believes that in reaching the bank's main target market of institutional investors, the new structure will help by having one platform from which to provide products and services. "We are looking for growth in our market share in Europe among insurance companies, banks' asset management arms. We may produce asset mangement products for their distribution."

The other managing directors are David Bilbé and Alan Brown. Fennell Betson"