Fresh from its industry-changing win with REST Super, State Street Investor Services has poached a competitor’s head of sales to become its first business development manager based in the industry fund capital of Melbourne.

Richard Coia, a 17-year sales and relationship management veteran with most of that time spent at National Australia Bank’s asset servicing division, will join State Street IS at the expiry of a four-week notice period.

His appointment is a symbol of State Street IS’ hunger for master custody business. It re-entered the market in 2006 after a five year absence, following on from the sale of its Australian business to Commonwealth Custodian Services. In the interim, it determined that Australian super funds were looking more like the sophisticated funds managers they were interested in servicing.

The first client win in its new phase of business was Non-Government Schools Super, followed by this year’s boilover win of the REST master custody contract, which had spent 18 years with J.P Morgan Worldwide Securities Services. The successful bid was said to have been extremely aggressive on fees, with REST said to have saved a six-figure sum per year in comparison with the next lowest tenderer.

Coia will be the first State Street IS salesperson to be based in Melbourne, with the business previously using Sydney as a base.

National Australia Bank’s asset servicing division is in the process of replacing Coia.