SWEDEN - The 22.9 billion-euro AMF Pension has appointed Northern Trust as custodian for its international portfolio.

"Northern Trust will provide global custody services to AMF Pension's nine billion dollars in global securities, as well as securities lending services," Northern Trust said in statement.

"We are very pleased to have been selected to provide global custody services to AMF Pension," said Anne Lise Winge, vice president of corporate and institutional services at Northern Trust in a statement.

She declined to comment on the financial terms of the deal and said Northern Trust had replaced Citigroup. Citigroup Global Transaction Services spokesman Robert White did not return calls seeking comment while AMF Pension spokesman Conny Johanson could not be reached.

Stockholm-based AMF is 50-50 owned by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise and the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and has around 2.8 million customers.

"We believe we have been awarded this business because of our culture and working philosophy, which AMF Pension feels is a good match with theirs," Winge added.

Chicago-based Northern Trust has 1.6 trillion dollars in assets under custody and 365 billion dollars in assets under management.

Last month AMF named Göran Tunhammar as its new board chairman, replacing Olof Ljunggren who is stepping down after eight years. The appointment followed a -10.2% return on assets in 2002.