State Street and Korea’s NPS extend servicing agreement

State Street has announced that its service contract with the world’s third largest pension fund, the National Pension Service of Korea (NPS), has been renewed.

State Street will continue to provide back-office and middle-office services for the fund’s portfolios of global equity ($195 billion) and alternatives ($43 billion).

“Over the past decade, the NPS has diversified its investment portfolio by raising allocations to foreign and alternative assets,” said Ian Martin, global head of asset owner segment at State Street. “Searching for returns across multiple asset classes requires a fresh approach to mitigating risk and managing data. We are proud to be helping the NPS harmonise and capitalise on data.”   

State Street has been providing custody, fund accounting, performance and analytics, mandate compliance and securities lending services to the NPS’ global equity and alternatives portfolio since 2014. In 2018, the NPS appointed State Street to support its middle-office operations, including Investment Book of Record (IBOR) services, transaction management, trade processing and data consolidation and customisation services.

The bank highlighted its ESG capabilities as an important factor in the relationship. “Sustainability is one of the six investment principles of the NPS and it is also a core value for State Street,” said Mostapha Tahiri, chief executive officer for Asia Pacific at State Street. “We embed ESG principles into everything we do to create a more sustainable future for our business and the communities we serve. Many leading institutional investors in Asia Pacific, like the NPS, have been incorporating ESG factors into their investment processes.”

State Street services more than 500 asset owners across pensions, corporations, endowments and foundations globally. Its asset owner solutions range from asset management, liquidity, investment operations and global custody, to institutional accounting, and data and analytics.