Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) today announced that it has been selected to provide outsourced trading via its Integrated Trading Solutions (ITS) for Nedgroup Investments, a global asset management firm with more than US$20 billion AUM.
Nedgroup Investments, a division of Nedbank Group Ltd, is an investment-led business dedicated to finding exceptional fund managers and providing the right conditions for them to perform. Northern Trust will be supporting Nedgroup Investments’ new in-house multi-boutique platform which specializes in fixed income. The premier fund on the platform, Nedgroup Investments Global Strategic Bond Fund, will feature a range of active fixed income strategies.
“While equity outsourcing has long been popular with managers, outsourcing the fixed income trading desk has been less common,” said Amy Thorne, Head of Integrated Trading Solutions, Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). “Recently, we’ve seen this perception shift, with a 144% growth in trade flow activity coming across our fixed income desk in 2023. Nedgroup selected Northern Trust due to the flexibility of our ITS solution which is able to scale seamlessly with the fund’s growth, as well as our broad access to liquidity networks and our bench of expert traders.”
“It's difficult to over-estimate the importance of access to market liquidity in bond fund management,” said David Roberts, Head of Fixed Income, Nedgroup Investments. “Utilising the services of Northern Trust and their wide and varied liquidity pools affords Nedgroup the ability to put our theory into practice, essential when being nimble is a key component of our process.”
Northern Trust’s outsourced trading capability combines worldwide agency-only trading expertise in equities, fixed income and exchange traded derivatives across global markets, coverage from multiple trading locations, access to high-quality liquidity and a fully integrated middle and back-office service. ITS helps asset owners and asset managers to meaningfully lower costs, reduce risk, manage regulatory compliance, and enhance transparency and operational efficiency.
ITS is offered through Institutional Brokerage, a part of Northern Trust Banking & Markets which also provides foreign exchange, securities lending and transition management services.