UK– Fife County Council’s 600 million-pound (858.5 million-euro) pension fund has appointed Northern Trust a its global custodian.

Northern Trust announced today that it had been appointed by Scottish municipality Fife, which will use a full range of global custody services, including web-based reporting.

Allan Taylor, revenue services manager at Fife Council, said that Northern Trust was chosen due to its experience and knowledge of the local authority sector. Northern Trust now acts as custodian for 26 UK local authorities.

Earlier this year Fife decided to switch its scheme from a wholly balanced strategy to a part-specialist strategy. Henderson Global Investors saw its balanced portfolio reduced to 30% from 50% of the total fund, while Merrill Lynch Investment Managers was ousted entirely and replaced by specialist mandates run by Barclays Global Investors, Alliance Bernstein and Western AM.

Northern Trust has 1.8 trillion dollars in assets under custody worldwide.