Background

The incumbent custodian had been appointed around 15 years ago when the pension fund was heavily invested in public market securities managed primarily on a segregated basis. As the pension scheme has matured exposure to public markets via segregated managers has reduced, being replaced by return seeking assets held through unitised funds, private market investments and liability matching assets. In addition, the pension introduced several Buy In insurance-based policies. Our client was looking to appoint a provider who would be able to effectively service the assets and support them in areas such an alternative asset administration, complex scheme reporting together with regulatory reporting. The view of the client was that they were keen to appoint a custodian they would consider a strategic partner for the pension scheme. 

Our approach

We have a tried and tested approach to the custodian searches, that covers the entire process. This process begins with ensuring that the clients future and current requirements are fully understood. We then produced the required RFP that is issued to the market. Once the RFP is received from the banks, we then assume responsibility for scoring the results and providing the client with a short list of appropriate providers. From here we will arrange and manage any interviews or due diligence meetings with shortlisted custodians. Throughout the process we use our extensive experience of working in the custody market to ensure that any fee proposals and proposed contracts that are provided are suitable and competitive in today’s market. Once the process has been completed, we provided a report to the client outlining our conclusions and making a recommendation of the most suitable custodian for the client to partner with. Once the new custodian has been appointed, we then assisted in the management of the transition of assets from the incumbent provider to the new custodian. 

Results

Once the transition to the new provider had been completed the client immediately began to experience an improved level of service from the new provider, who was fully committed to delivering on the commitments that had been made during the selection process.