Northern Trust has opened an office in Frankfurt Germany, as part of a continuing commitment to servicing clients as close to their home market as possible.
Northern Trust Management Services (Deutschland) GmbH has been established to provide investment operations outsourcing services to Allianz Global Investors, one of the largest investment managers in Germany, and with whom Northern Trust has a strong existing relationship across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Through the expansion of its investment operations outsourcing capabilities in Germany, Northern Trust now provides services for a total of €110 billion in assets in Germany. From its Frankfurt office, Northern Trust will also begin servicing assets for Allianz Global Investors’ other pan-European locations.
“We are delighted to announce our expansion into Germany where we see significant opportunities across the institutional market, both in terms of asset servicing and asset management,” said Wilson Leech, chief executive officer of Northern Trust in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
“We value our longstanding relationship with Allianz Global Investors and look forward to working closely with them as we deliver our sophisticated investment operations outsourcing solution, helping them focus on their core business.”
Northern Trust’s German office, which will be staffed by 20 people, will be headed by Kai Dirk Leifert, in Frankfurt. Leifert joined Northern Trust in 2008 and was most recently chief operating officer for Northern Trust’s asset management business across Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, based in London.
In his new role, Leifert will be responsible for the overall management of the Frankfurt office and Northern Trust’s presence in the region.
“Partnering with Northern Trust is a significant step for us in implementing our global operating model and servicing our clients locally as ‘one firm’, more efficiently,” said Michael Peters, chief operating officer for Europe at Allianz Global Investors.
“Northern Trust is one of the world’s largest asset servicing providers, and one of the few to have a fully tailored, automated component outsourcing service for trade matching on a single, integrated global technology platform.”
Northern Trust’s Global Fund Services business provides custody, fund administration, and investment operations outsourcing solutions to investment managers across the globe and across the spectrum of asset classes. It has 20 full outsourcing clients and a further 20 component outsourcing relationships in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.
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