UK - ING Investment Management has expanded its London office to service UK pension schemes it claims are growing out of their domestic bias.

European managing director Matthias Schellenberg told IPE the financial crisis had moved UK pension schemes away from their traditional emphasis on domestic equities and bonds and provided a gateway for foreign asset managers with a track record of handling pension money.

"It's my conviction that you can only operate in a market in the long-term if you have a local presence," he said. "It's not longer a fly-in, fly-out business.

"We're known to consultants, but we need to be locally available. The relationships need to be there."

He added that ING had no intention of competing with large domestic players.

Up to now, the asset manager's office in the UK capital had focused on European senior bank loans. 

With the expansion, Paul Waters will join as director of UK institutional, while Peter Wilson has been appointed as director of UK wholesale. Both will report to UK country manager Deepti Bhandoola. 


In other news, Legal & General has extended custodian Northern Trust's contract to include fund accounting to its range of unit trusts.

The contract, worth £25bn (€28.2bn), follows L&G's decision to consolidate custody and find accountancy across its range of equity, fixed income, property and asset allocation funds.

Northern Trust has been custodian for other parts of the business for the past 10 years.

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