For the first time in five years, a WA insurer with a $2.5 billion investment pool has put its custody contract out to tender, I&T News can confirm.

The Insurance Commission of Western Australia (ICWA) had distributed tender documents to the market and was in the process of gathering responses, a spokesperson for the WA government motor insurer confirmed in the absence of further details.

It is understood that ICWA’s incumbent custodian is BNP Paribas Securities Services, which in 2005 won the contract from National Asset Servicing, ending an outsourcing relationship that had been in place since the late 1990s.

According to its 2009 annual report, the statutory authority oversaw a pool of about $2.5 billion. It underwrites and manages six funds, the primary vehicles being the Third Party Insurance Fund and RiskCover Fund.