Finland’s state pension fund, Valtion Eläkerahasto (VER), has appointed BNY Mellon to provide global custody for all of its direct equity and fixed-income instruments, totalling €7.5bn ($10.2bn).

BNY Mellon’s ability to provide a straight-through processing interface to VER’s existing technology platforms was one factor that influenced the pension fund’s decision.

VER general counsel Tiina Tarma said: "We initiated a transparent review of global custody service providers which ranked candidates on a weighted basis across a range of key criteria. A thorough analysis of the results saw BNY Mellon returning the highest overall score and accordingly we have selected the company to be VER's new global custodian.”

Hani Kablawi, head of asset servicing for Emea at BNY Mellon, said: “We are strongly committed to supporting our clients in Finland, and our track-record underlines our ability to offer leading European institutions like VER a compelling mix of innovative solutions, high quality service, local expertise and global insight.”