National Australia Bank (NAB) Asset Services has won a custody mandate to provide administrative services for the $630-million Health Industry Plan (HIP), supplanting the incumbent provider BNP Paribas.
Australia’s largest custodian bank with about $508 billion in assets under custody, NAB secured the deal after a competitive tendering process run by the fund’s consultants Jana.
It follows a run of success for the bank, which gained clients WorkCover SA and Suncorp in New Zealand earlier in the year.
However, these successes come on the back of the disappointment of losing the $32-billion QSuper to rival, State Street, in March.
Ross Bernays, the chief executive officer of HIP, says in announcing the change of custodian that NAB was for selected both for its domestic and offshore capabilities.
“NAB Asset Servicing was selected through their clear understanding [of] and commitment to the Australian superannuation and financial systems, supported by appropriate technology capabilities and significant international strategic partnerships, which clearly supported HIP’s investment strategy,” Bernays says.
In a statement announcing the new mandate, NAB Asset Services highlighted its unit-pricing and credit-rate systems, which can be customised to client needs, as reasons why it was awarded the mandate.
NAB has managed to secure two major mandates in New Zealand recently: prior to the Suncorp deal, it secured New Zealand Guardian Trust, which administers NZ$6.5 billion and is corporate trustee of NZ$58 billion
