The business of ANZ Custody is back on the market, but with a big ING-flavoured sweetener for prospective buyers.

ANZ has been negotiating the sale of the custody business for several weeks but is understood to have more recently included a timetable to transition the backoffice administration for ING’s wealth management business to whoever buys the custody operation. The ING backoffice had been the subject of a tender.

JPMorgan is considered the frontrunner for the purchase and to novate available ANZ and ING clients through the deal. The deal is expected to be announced within the next few days.

ANZ tested the market for the sale of its custody business last year, but after several parties expressed interest, the business was withdrawn from the market. Following that, the firm’s biggest sub-custody client, the European ClearStream operation, went to tender and ANZ also lost the sub-custody of Northern Trust in Australia, surrendering the Future Fund’s billions.

ANZ agreed to pay $1.86 billion for the wealth management and insurance operations of ING in Australia and New Zealand in a joint venture which began in 2002.

ING Investment Management is not included in the ANZ transaction.