US – Securities services provider Northern Trust says it is undergoing an “intensive review” of its business and operations following a sharp decline in quarterly earnings.

The company reported first-quarter earnings fell to 94.7 million dollars from 127.6 million dollars a year before.

The company said in a statement that it is “performing an intensive review of our business and operations in order to improve productivity”. It has begun a series of “outsourcing and re-engineering” to improve efficiency and lower costs.

Chairman and chief executive William Osborn said: "The combined impact of the struggling global economy, sharp declines in equity markets, and low interest rates have continued to negatively affect our performance.”

Osborn said that although the S&P 500 fell 26% last year the company continues to win new business.

As at the end of March, trust assets under administration totalled 1.59 trillion dollars which includes managed assets of 365.3 billion dollars.

The company, which recently bought Deutsche Bank's passive asset management business, said its first-quarter revenues declined six percent to 526.6 million dollars from 560.1 million dollars a year ago.

Trust fees declined eight percent to 298.1 million dollars from 323.0 million dollars.

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