UK – The Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund (MNOPF), worth close to €4bn, is currently in the process of a custodial review, IPE has learnt.

JP Morgan Investor Services is the fund’s sole custodian, according to ‘International Pension Funds & Their Advisers’.

The firm declined to comment. “It is not our policy to comment on business matters under review,” said a JP Morgan spokesperson.

Last month the bank announced the departure of European custody co-head Ramy Bourgi amid a restructuring of the division’s management.

Watson Wyatt – the MNOPF’s investment adviser – also declined to comment.

MNOPF investment director Alick Stevenson could not be reached for comment today due to the review process, a fund official stated.

The MNOPF has two defined benefit schemes: the old section (1938 to 1978) and the new section (from 1978 onwards). Both have a capital value of approximately €1.96bn.

Peter Greenwood is pensions director of the fund, which is administered by MNPA – a wholly owned trading subsidiary company of MNOPF Trustees Limited and based in Leatherhead, Surrey.

Overall, the MNOPF has roughly 2,553 members, 22,427 pensioners and 31,143 deferred pensioners.

It provides pensions on retirement and protection on death for officers in the UK mercantile marine.