State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT), the world's leading provider of financial services to institutional investors, today announced that it has been appointed to provide a comprehensive range of investment services to Lucida plc.
Lucida, a new company offering pension solutions, plans to accept transfers of defined benefit pension liabilities from companies as well as accept transfers of annuity portfolios from UK insurance companies. As a new insurance company, Lucida will have a clear focus on the annuity market and the expertise to create real solutions for companies and pension schemes as well as deliver outstanding service to members.
The new win, awarded to State Street after a competitive tender process, encompasses Lucida's global custody, investment accounting, performance measurement, securities lending, transition management and compliance monitoring requirements.
"State Street's experience and proven track record of servicing complex customer needs within the bulk annuity market were very important to us," said Margaret Snowdon, Lucida's operations director. "As our assets grow we're very confident that we have a partner who can meet all of our financial services needs."
"Building on our success in servicing other bulk annuity providers as well as sophisticated LDI strategies, this mandate is another important step for State Street in what we see as a key growth market," said Peter O'Neill, executive vice president and head of State Street's investment servicing and investment research and trading businesses in the United Kingdom, South Africa and the Middle East. "We now have an excellent customer base in the UK which we can use to expand into other geographic locations where defined benefit schemes have historically dominated the pensions landscape. We're pleased to demonstrate our ability to service customers in this area."