The administering authority for the Merseyside Pension Fund, Wirral Metropolitan Council, has appointed Northern Trust as the fund’s global custodian.

Northern Trust will provide global custody, investment accounting, securities lending and commission recapture services to Merseyside Pension Fund assets worth £4.5bn ($7.2bn).

"Northern Trust's ability to customise their asset servicing reporting capabilities to meet our requirements, combined with their proven track record in the LGPS market were key factors in their appointment," said head of Merseyside Pension Fund, Peter Wallach.

"In particular the ability to provide a single platform for reporting and managing all our assets should enable us to save time and resource," he added.

This mandate brings Northern Trust's total assets under custody for local government pension schemes (LGPS) to £65bn, representing 43% of the total LGPS market in the UK.

"We understand that LGPS clients face a unique set of challenges and have developed a number of solutions to support them, through our Institutional Governance Services group, which can provide a tailored and highly focused level of information to help pension funds meet their regulatory requirements," said Douglas Gee, head of business development for the UK and Ireland, Northern Trust's Institutional Investor Group (IIG).