UK - The 740 million pounds (Euro 1.08 billion) West Sussex County Council Pension Fund has consolidated custody of its assets under State Street Corporation, one of its existing custodians.

State Street said in a statement that the appointment had followed a custody review after which it was appointed exclusive custodian. Consultant Thomas Murray was involved in the review.

WM Performance Services, State Street’s European performance measurement division will continue to provide performance measurements.

Custody was previously shared by State Street and UBS. UBS spokesman Charles Gorman told to IPE that UBS decided to withdraw custodian services last year. Custodian services were ended in March this year.

“You can see a change in the investment industry, in custody arrangements, which left us the last major fund manager which offered internal custody. A significant majority of our clients already has external global custodians” he said.

UBS decision to withdraw from the custody market affects less than 50% of its clients, Gorman said. “We believe that the trend of using global custodians will continue” he added.

“We look forward to building upon our partnership with West Sussex,” said Alasdair Reid, head of State Street’s Asset Owner Group in Northern Europe.

Reid added State Street provided custody services to one-quarter of the UK’s 100 local authority pension plans. State Street said in a statement it had $9.5 trn in assets under custody and $1.4 trn in assets under management as of March 31, 2005

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