The UK’s E963m Tate & Lyle Pension Fund has appointed State Street Corporation as its sole global custody and administration provider, following a review conducted last year.
Deutsche Bank’s custody arm was previously responsible for Tate and Lyle’s pension fund custody and administration activities, and was bought by State Street Corporation in November last year.
Tate and Lyle insists that State Street was chosen irrespective of the Deutsche acquisition, and says that the review process had commenced prior to the deal being made.
Says Viv Tierney, financial controller and secretary to the trustee of Tate & Lyle: “After a thorough review of the major providers, we selected State Street as we felt they were best placed to meet our particular requirements. We also value State Street’s commitment to continuing to grow and expand in Europe over the long term.”
l Swiss Life Asset Management’s Belgian operation has signed a letter of intent to outsource its back office functions to State Street, though the structure and fees of the deal are not yet finalised.
The two companies said in a statement that Swiss Life Asset Management (Belgium) will “outsource its administrative, operations and support services for their assets under management to State Street”. SLAM Belgium manages equities, fixed income and money market assets. Under the agreement, Swiss Life (Belgium) will migrate to the State Street technology platform. The will allow Swiss Life (Belgium), with E1.8bn in assets under management, to focus on its core business as it seeks to grow. The company received its licence to act as a third-party asset manager at the end of last year.
SLAM Belgium’s marketing director Peter De Coensel says it chose State Street due to its “excellent management information reporting, performance measurement and risk control whilst respecting Association for Investment Management and Research compliance rules.”
“The structure and fees are not set in stone,” said State Street senior vice president John Campbell, though the deal should be finalised within three months.
The deal is subject to Belgian regulatory approval.