EUROPE – The €14bn French pension fund for civil servants (ERAFP) has awarded three fund of fund mandates as part of a framework agreement.

While Amundi has been selected to run the multi-asset fund of fund mandate, BNP Paribas Asset Management and Neuflize OBC Investissements have also been appointed to the framework, but will not receive any capital.

"Following a fundamental approach and without being tied to a benchmark, the manager will build the portfolio using a rigorous asset allocation and fund selection process and in compliance with ERAFP's SRI requirements," ERAFP said in a statement.

The French pension fund went on to say that Amundi would seek to maximise the portfolio's performance while limiting its one-year losses through the use of a risk budget.

According to ERAFP, the amounts invested over a one-year horizon could be around €150m, rising to €300m over a three-year period.

The initial term of the contract is set for four years, but may be extended by ERAFP for two successive periods of two years each.

ERAFP launched the restricted call for tenders for the management of an socially responsible investment (SRI) multi-asset fund of fund in July last year.

As per the board's request, the fund invests all assets in line with its SRI charter.

Meanwhile, the £2bn (€2.4bn) Norfolk County Council Pension Fund is looking to launch a framework agreement for global custody services that can be accessed by any of the UK's local authority pension schemes (LGPS).

As part of the framework agreement, Norfolk pension fund – acting as contracting authority for the pension schemes of Cambridgeshire County Council, Northamptonshire County Council, Suffolk County Council and the London Boroughs of Hackney and Croydon – is seeking to appoint a panel of global custodians.

The services provided by the custodians selected will include the usual safekeeping of assets, trade settlement, tax collection, as well as proxy voting facilitation, investment accounting, online reporting, performance measurement, foreign exchange, cash management, compliance monitoring and passive currency hedging.

According to Norfolk pension fund, the framework agreement will last for four years and be available for use by all local government pension schemes' administering authorities.

A bidders event will be held in London on 23 April, with expressions of interest requested by 15 April.

Norfolk County Council Pension Fund said it would start appointing members of the framework from 30 September onwards, and added that no LGPS would be permitted to use the framework as a basis for its tendering after September 2024.

Norfolk added that the framework agreement was part of its attempt to comply with the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission's report, published by Lord Hutton in 2011.

In the report, the former Labour minister urged pension funds to jointly tender for services in an effort to reduce costs. Norfolk previously launched a UK-wide framework agreement for investment consultants, with the fund's head telling IPE at the time that it would also look to launch a custody framework.