JAPAN- Mellon Financial Corporation and Japan’s Shinsei Bank are joining forces and establishing an investment advisory and trust company to provide investment management services to the Japanese pensions market.

The idea has been under discussion for several months and if the joint venture receives regulatory approval, it will launch in Tokyo at the end of 2002.

The new company, which is a 50:50 joint venture, is to focus on offering international asset management for Japanese public and corporate pension funds.

According to figures released by Cerrulli Associates, the investment advisory market in Japan is expected to grow around 12% pa to 2005. Investment advisory companies currently have only 13.5% of the Japanese pension fund market, around Y35,000bn (e304bn).

Jon Little, chief executive of Mellon Global Investments agreed that the market has considerable scope for growth. “Japan is increasingly looking at professional management of pensions – people are looking at skills and not just in-house links”.

The Mellon Group already has a Japanese asset management subsidiary, Mellon Global Investments Japan which offers services to the Japanese retail and institutional non-pension markets.

In July, Mellon Financial Corporation formalised its 50:50 joint venture with ABN AMRO and created a new, separately-capitalised financial services company that will provide global custody and related services to clients outside of North America.


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