State Street Corporation has scored a win over main rival National Australia Bank in the custody sector, winning a custody mandate from $625-million fund, Christian Super.

The appointment follows a review of its custody arrangements by the fund, with chief executive Peter Murphy saying that Christian Super’s strong growth in the last few years had been a factor in the decision.

“The primary goal of our review was to identify a reliable custodian with core service strength that could deliver additional valuable services for our members,” Murphy said.

The mandate is the last in a string of new business won by State Street over the last 15 months, following the winning of mandates from Sunsuper and QSuper – also from NAB – and REST from JP Morgan. National Australia Bank has won recent mandates from Telstra Super and the Health Industry Plan.

“We see the relationship we offer is unique and while clients might not be huge in dollar tems we make them feel big,” Paul Khoury, State Street’s chief operating officer told I&T News.

He said funds had an increased focus on custody as a result of new proposed prudential standards from APRA and State Street’s “makes clients comfortable because of its IT environment.”

“But its also a cultural fit, and I think clients are looking for people they can have direct relationships with who can really problem solve for them,” Khoury said.

Lachlan Colquhoun is head of market analysis at East & Partners.