State Street, the Boston bank, has agreed to sell its private asset management business to the Charles Schwab in an effort to concentrate on its core operations and cut costs.

State Street says that it wants to focus more on what it sees as its main area of expertise: servicing institutional rather than retail clients. It is selling its private client arm for roughly $365m (€316m), about 5% of which will be subject to the successful transition of the business to Charles Schwab.