In other news, a regulator fills a key IT post, Pier Capital Taps INDATA, and CACEIS works with SideCaps.
300 Pension Funds Rolled into FPIF
Northern Trust played a key role in a pension consolidation project that pulled together the assets of 300 firefighter pension funds across Chicago and other parts of Illinois and led to the creation of the Illinois Firefighters’ Pension Investment Fund (FPIF), officials say.
The Northern Trust Transition Management team led the transition to the newly consolidated FPIF, which represents $8 billion in assets, officials say.
“Created by the Illinois Pension Code in 2019, the FPIF is responsible for consolidating, managing and investing the assets of municipal and fire protection district pension funds across Illinois. A nine-member Board of Trustees – made up of four active firefighters, one retired firefighter and four employee representatives – governs the fund,” according to the Northern Trust announcement.
For the asset consolidation, the Transition Management model had to “track and report on each stage of the process. Northern Trust transitioned a variety of assets from 36 different custodians with a market value of more than $8 billion over a 10-month period, adhering to the timeline defined by FPIF’s requirements. During the process, FPIF collaborated closely with Northern Trust transition managers across the globe, ensuring regional expertise and 24 hours a day, six days a week client service throughout the restructuring,” according to Northern Trust.
“One of the critical duties of any fiduciary board is to safeguard and harbor the assets entrusted to its care,” says William Atwood, executive director for FPIF, in a prepared statement. “The custodial relationship is the foundation for those protections,” Atwood adds.
“FPIF spent months in preparation before executing an exhaustive selection process,” Atwood adds.
Chicago-based Northern Trust Corp. offers wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking to corporations, institutions, affluent families and individuals, officials say.
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Fills Top IT Post
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has named Kristen Baldwin as the regulator’s next chief information officer, effective Feb. 26, 2023, officials say.
Baldwin previously served as the assistant administrator for information and technology services, and the chief information officer, at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), officials say. In that position, Baldwin was responsible for the IT services and products that enable the FAA’s mission and strategic plan.
Before the FAA, Baldwin served in leadership positions for the U.S. Department of Transportation, serving as deputy chief information officer and as associate CIO for IT Policy and Oversight, officials say. Baldwin also served as the director of the resource management office for the Office of the Chief Information Officer.
For her new role, Baldwin will “lead all OCC information technology (IT) programs, supporting the agency’s mission of ensuring that national banks and federal savings associations operate in a safe, sound, and fair manner,” officials say.
Pier Capital Taps INDATA for Front-to-Back-Office Support
Kathy Mienko
Boutique investment adviser Pier Capital, LLC, based in Stamford, Conn reports that it has gone live with an integrated front-to-back office software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution from INDATA, which is delivered via the vendor’s iPM Private Cloud, officials say.
Pier Capital manages U.S. Small Cap Growth and SMid Cap Growth equity portfolios “primarily for institutional clients such as retirement plans, endowments, foundations, municipalities and for a limited number of high-net-worth clients,” according to officials.
“We were looking for a more integrated software solution that would improve some of our trading and reporting capabilities,” says Kathy Mienko, chief compliance officer (CCO) for Pier Capital, in a prepared statement.
“Now that we have implemented INDATA, we have also been able to significantly streamline our operational workflows via their outsourcing services, which allows us to focus on our core investment activities and servicing clients,” Mienko says.
The Greenwich, Conn.-based INDATA offers managed outsourcing services for buy-side firms, cloud-based SaaS products, and client portal software.
CACEIS to Provide Clearing & Settlement for SideCaps
CACEIS, the asset servicing banking group of Crédit Agricole and Santander, is providing clearing and settlement services for the new SideCaps block-trading platform serving the small and medium enterprise (SME) secondary-line stock market in Germany, officials say.
In fact, CACEIS helped design SideCaps.
“Forming a close working partnership with our clients is key to our group’s business policy, says Anja Maiberger, CACEIS head of regional coverage for Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe, in a prepared statement.
“CACEIS was able to assist SideCaps in the design and analysis of the processes behind the new SME matching platform in order to ensure they met the necessary efficiency, transparency and regulatory compliance targets stated at the outset of the project,” Maiberger says.
The platform launched in January 2023 and offers “secure and transparent trading access to listed secondary-line stocks and unique vertical integration with XETRA and Eurex CCP,” officials say. “CACEIS will settle and clear cash equity transactions for every trade executed on the platform.”
The input from CACEIS “during the platform’s development phase was much appreciated and such a close working partnership contributed to ensuring a smooth go-live procedure,” says Julius Krieg, CEO and founder of SideCaps, in a prepared statement.
CACEIS offers asset managers, insurance companies, pension funds, banks, private equity and real estate funds, brokers, and corporate clients a range of services such as execution, clearing, foreign exchange, securities lending, custody, depositary and fund administration, fund distribution support, middle office outsourcing, and issuer support, officials say.
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