CIBC Mellon has been appointed as the custodian and investment data services provider for Brock University Pension Plan.
Under the mandate, CIBC will provide custody, institutional accounting and pension benefit payment services, as well as access to data and investment information via its global enterprise portal.
According to the Canadian custody bank, Brock University selected CIBC Mellon after conducting a thorough review of the market with an Aon Custody Advisory Services-led RFQ and custodian conversion/implementation project management.
“We look forward to working collaboratively with CIBC Mellon’s seasoned client service team and to tap into their global enterprise’s intuitive and powerful technology. I am confident we will benefit from their operational expertise, including their decades of experience as a leading provider of benefit payment disbursement services,” said Josh Tonnos, associate vice president, financial services and chief financial officer, Brock Univesity.
Brock University sponsors a hybrid pension plan with around CAD$600 million in assets under management, as of June 2020.
It contains both defined contribution and defined benefit components to provide plan members with the opportunity to benefit from the investment performance of the pension fund, while offering members with protection against market downturns through the provision of a Minimum Guaranteed Pension.
The inclusion of investment data services comes as an increasing number of Canadian asset owners are taking more asset management functions in-house, and as such, turning to custodians to help them grow their investment operations and systems.
According to a recent CIBC Mellon survey of Canadian pension funds, it found 60% of respondents pointed to in-house technology capabilities as standing in the way of taking more asset management functions in-house. That bar is only likely to move higher as tools and technologies such as data analytics, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence become more embedded in the asset management sector.
“We know leading Canadian university pension funds are facing increasing demands and a greater need for data management and digitisation as they work to achieve their plans’ long-term objectives,” said Alistair Almeida, segment lead, asset owners, CIBC Mellon. “We are honoured to bring on the Brock University Pension Plan and look forward to providing exceptional operational support so they can focus on growing their pension fund.”