Custody giant State Street has picked up a contract to service around €450 billion of assets for Allianz Global Investors, the asset management arm of the German insurance giant, just 24 hours after news emerged it had lost a $1 trillion mandate at BlackRock.
The Allianz win underscores the competitive nature of the $170 trillion global custody market, as well as highlighting countervailing trends: while some fund managers want to consolidate their service providers, as Allianz has done, BlackRock has shifted its mandate from State Street to JP Morgan in order to diversify its roster, according to State Street.
