The £1.8bn (£2.6bn) Scottish Power pension scheme has appointed State Street Bank and Trust Company as sole provider of its custody and accounting business, following a close fought tender battle with previous interim custodians Chase.
State Street already provides custody for Southern Water, a major subsidiary of Scottish Power, and Stuart Frame, pensions development officer at the UK energy group, explained: There really was nothing to choose from between the core custody services of State Street and Chase, and in the end the trustees chose the former for purely cost and value added reasons."
Chase had previously provided the scheme's custody, after original custodians Barclays Global Investors had their business bought out by Morgan Stanley, which in turn was bought by Chase. Benjie Fraser, vice president, at State Street, says: " We are delighted to have been awarded this business from a major FT-SE100 company"."