UK - The £1.1bn (€1.7bn) Wiltshire County Council pension fund has appointed ABN Amro Mellon as its global custodian.

Following a tender procedure, Northern Trust, which was the scheme custodian for the past six years, lost out to ABN Amro Mellon. The council was advised by Thomas Murray on the review.

"We were very impressed with the package offered by ABN AMRO Mellon, particularly their IT platform, combined with excellent value for money and an enthusiastic, professional team," David Broome, investments manager at Wiltshire County Council, said.

Elsewhere, JP Morgan has been re-appointed as global custodian for the £3.5bn London Pension Fund Authority (LPFA) scheme.

The scheme's investment committee decided to renew the company's contract without a tender process, a spokesperson confirmed to IPE. JPMorgan has provided custody services for LPFA since 1991.

"JPMorgan has been our long-standing trusted provider of custody and related securities services, and we are happy to extend our relationship with them," said Mike Taylor, chief executive at LPFA.

In a separate development, Baille Gifford has been re-appointed to a £650m balanced brief at the £1.4bn West Sussex County Council pension fund.

The council has about half its assets in the balanced, actively managed mandate but said in a contract award notice that "allocation of part of the fund to a specialist manager may be considered at some future date". Baille Gifford has held the mandate since 2002.