Mandate roundup: North Yorkshire appoints insurance bonds manager

North Yorkshire County Council has chosen Leadenhall Capital Partners to manage an allocation to insurance-linked securities (ILS) for its pension fund.

The £3bn (€3.5bn) North Yorkshire Pension Fund launched the tender in January, explaining that it was prompted by an “urgent review” of its investment portfolio in light of risks associated with the UK’s departure from the European Union.

According to the search notice, the public sector pension fund was planning to allocate 3.3-5% of total assets to the ILS mandate. This would be equivalent to around £110m-£165m.

The pension fund previously said it wanted to be in a position to invest in ILS by June, as the asset class could only be accessed twice a year and June was the next intake.

North Yorkshire Pension Fund is part of the £43.7bn Border to Coast asset pool together with 11 other local government pension schemes (LGPS). 

London CIV launches first fixed income fund

London CIV has confirmed the appointment of CQS as the manager of a multi-asset credit fund, the first of a set of fixed income strategies the pooling vehicle is developing for its member LGPS funds.

CQS was one of several fixed income managers that London CIV had lined up a few months ago, as previously reported, but its appointment was only officially confirmed yesterday with the announcement of the new fund.

Four London local authority pension funds will invest £308m in the new fund at launch, bringing the London CIV’s total assets under management and oversight above £15bn.

Separately, the London CIV announced it had selected Opus Nebula to provide fund factsheet and client reporting services, replacing a legacy reporting system. 

Brian Lee, chief operating officer at London CIV, said the investor had demanding reporting requirements and implementation timeframes, and that Opus Nebula had enabled the pooling vehicle to automate its client reporting, reduce reporting times and mitigate process risk.

“This is an important first step in the build-out of our operating model,” he said.

North East Scotland Pension Fund names new custodian

North East Scotland Pension Fund has appointed HSBC Securities Services as its global custodian.

The mandate from the £4.2bn LGPS includes investment accounting, investment reporting, performance services, securities lending and compliance monitoring.

BNP Paribas was the pension fund’s most recent previous global custodian, having replaced Bank of New York Mellon in December 2016.

Member data service providers wanted

Several UK local authority pension funds are looking to set up a framework agreement for the provision of member data services.

They are seeking providers of address tracing and correction, and mortality screening services for the UK and overseas.

The participating LGPS are: Norfolk Pension Fund, Bedfordshire Pension Fund, London Borough of Hackney, Lothian Pension Fund, Merseyside Pension Fund, and West Midlands Pension Fund.

Any LGPS fund or asset pool is free to choose a provider directly from those that will be appointed to the framework agreement, or run a further competition between them before awarding a mandate.