The UK’s Pension Protection Fund (PPF) plans to appoint a global custodian in the next 12 months, according to an official notice.

The pensions lifeboat scheme said it intended to award a contract for the provision of global custodian services in the next 12 months and that the procurement process was expected to start at the end of August or later, in a prior information notice on the TED EU tender service.

The PPF said the core service requirements were likely to be the provision of custody and investment accounting services incorporating global custody and investment accounting, including administration of alternative investments such as property, private equity and OTCs across a range of funds and segregated mandates. 

Additional services required include performance measurement, post-trade compliance monitoring, securities lending, collateral management, passive currency overlay, foreign-exchange hedging and derivative servicing. 

The fund said there may be future requirements for supporting asset growth, and one option was self-trading with middle office activities.

The PPF said it was now in the process of preparing specifications for the services, and that firms interested in tendering should register with its dedicated tender portal.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank (ECB) is looking for a firm to provide actuarial services, according to contract notice on TED.

The ECB issued an invitation to tender for the provision of various services to its Directorate General Human Resources, Budget and Organisation, which administers the bank’s pension arrangements – the ECB retirement plan and the ECB pension scheme.

The services required included an annual actuarial valuation for the financial years 2015-17 of the assets and liabilities of the ECB pension arrangements and other benefits, a funding valuation for 2015-17 of the ECB pension arrangements as well as actuarial advice on a broad range of issues.

The contract is to start at the beginning of February 2015 and run until the start of February 2018.

Tenders will be opened on 13 August, according to the contract notice.