One of New Zealand’s largest institutional investors has switched custodians for its NZ$6 billion domestic portfolio, moving from a local provider to a global custodian who will perform some of the work from Sydney.

The Accident Compensation Corporation of New Zealand (ACC) is transferring custodial, accounting and administrative services for its Kiwi portfolio from Trustee Executors to JPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services (JPMorgan WSS), following a 12-month review process co-ordinated by ACC operations manager, Fenella Gray.

It’s almost a year since JPMorgan WSS won the custody and administration contract for ACC’s NZ$1 billion Australian assets portfolio, in that case displacing ANZ Custodian Services.

Northern Trust remains global custodian for ACC’s NZ$2.5 billion of non-Australasian assets.

Staff from the JPMorgan WSS Wellington office, which was opened in late-2007, will handle client service for the ACC and be on hand to assist with planning and execution of the custody transfer. The processing and execution side will be handled from Sydney.

“Our locally based business model allows us to truly understand the requirements of our New Zealand clients,” said JPMorgan WSS Australia & NZ chief executive, Jane Perry, adding the custodian had become a “trusted business adviser” to ACC.