EUROPE – SEI has been appointed as fiduciary manager to two transport pension schemes, with the mandate exceeding £50m (€58m).

The Metroline London Northern Pension Scheme and the Metroline Pension Scheme – which have £26m and £25.6m, respectively, in assets under management – selected SEI to help advise on the implementation of asset and liability matching strategies and construct efficient investment portfolios based around said strategies.
 
The Metroline trustees pointed to SEI's ability to deliver an active approach to growing and protecting funding levels with less reliance on quarterly meetings in their decision to work with SEI.

John Brace, trustee on the Metroline London Northern and Metroline Pension Schemes, said that the trustees decided to appoint SEI as they were keen to find a solution that would improve the scheme governance and allow them to more actively manage their funding level to reduce volatility and close any funding gaps.

Meanwhile, the €180m Dutch pension fund for the travel industry – Stichting Bedrijfstakpensioenfonds voor de Reisbranche – has reappointed Syntrus Achmea as fiduciary manager.

The fund said that over the course of the year, if it was successful in completing its agreed-upon recovery plan, the fund would alter its investment strategy.

Finally, BNP Paribas Securities Services has been mandated by Knight Capital Europe to provide clearing and custody services on a pan-European scale.

Knight Capital Group provides access to the capital markets across multiple asset classes to a network of clients, including asset management firms and pension funds.

BNP Paribas will provide clearing, settlement, custody, stock lending and financing for the European Equity business across Europe and North Africa.

Albert Maasland, head of international at Knight Capital Europe said that BNP Paribas Securities Services' top-rated proprietary network, real time risk modelling in liquidity management, and overall transparency were key factors in the decision process.

Maasland also said the selection of BNP Paribas was another step in growing Knight Capital's European execution business.