UK – Gartmore Group has appointed J P Morgan Investor Services as global custodian for the Gartmore Funds’ 16 billion dollars (14 billion euros) in assets.

J P Morgan will provide global custody, foreign exchange, cash trade execution, securities lending and commercial banking services for the Gartmore open-end investment fund assets.

"J P Morgan offers Gartmore the expertise, capabilities and services that can increase our efficiencies and reduce our expenses," said Gartmore’s chief executive Paul Hondros.

Previously Gartmore’s open-end mutual fund assets were run by US custodian Fifth Third Bank. Gartmore’s assets under management total 67 billion dollars (59 billion euros).

J P Morgan Investor Services has six trillion dollars (5.3 trillion euros) in assets under custody, of which approximately 2 trillion dollars (1.8 trillion euros) are global custody assets.