BNP Paribas Securities Services (BNP PSS) bade farewell to its head of transition management last Friday, but good news came in the form of a master custody contract for a $1.2 billion NZ client.
Melanie O’Rourke starts this week as a co-director of investment operations at the $12 billion WorkCover NSW investment division, which recently switched its backoffice contracts from BNP PSS to State Street Investor Services. The other co-director at the Workcover division, Steve Ingham, said O’Rourke had worked extensively with his team on mandate transitions in her former capacity at BNP PSS. O’Rourke is joining Workcover on a full-time but contractual basis, covering for Ruwanie Dias who has just gone on maternity leave. A BNP PSS spokesperson said O’Rourke’s responsibilities would be covered by group head of fund administration, Caroline Marull, while a replacement for O’Rourke was sought. In better news for the custodian, it has been selected as the first ever custodian for the $1.2 billion Mercer Super Trust in New Zealand, after a tender and due diligence process. BNP PSS’ NZ head, Hugh Stevens, said the custodian had “;invested heavily”; to support the country’s new ‘portfolio investment entity’ and ‘KiwiSaver’ regimes.
The $34 billion Brighter Super is set to shift a significant proportion of equities assets in MySuper from passive to active management. Chief investment officer Mark Rider says the move is possible because of the scale created by mergers, and the fund will be looking to its newly appointed active managers to generate performance through the cycle by taking idiosyncratic risks.
Darcy SongJanuary 21, 2025
