EUROPE - Mellon Financial and the Bank of New York are assessing their respective European custody joint ventures following yesterday's announcement that they plan to merge.

The merger statement made no reference to the ventures, but a Mellon spokesman has told IPE: "Both Mellon and Bank of New York have strong joint venture relationships.

"We will be discussing the transaction with all our alliance and JV partners over the coming weeks and months as we assess our strategic priorities."

Mellon's custody alliance with ABN Amro dates back to 1998, becoming a fully-fledged joint venture in 2002 under the name ABN Amro Mellon Global Securities Services, with Nadine Chakar as chief executive. She did not respond to requests for comment.

The Bank of New York's alliance with ING dates back to October 2002.

The ABN Amro Mellon venture has recently won custody mandates with the Cambridgeshire County Council Pension Fund, Stichting Pensioenfonds Hoogovens and the Railways Pension Trustee Co.

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