CommonwealthCustodial Services (CCS) lost its biggest client grouping, that of three super funds, following the news that parent Commonwealth Bank of Australia had put it up for sale.
Three super fund clients — the Local Government Superannuation Scheme, the Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme and the Chifley superannuation scheme — have appointed JPMorgan Investor Services as custodian for their combined assets of $5 billion.
The combined size of the funds represented the single biggest external client for CSS. However, the super funds’ CEO Brett Westbrook stresses that the move to change custodian had nothing to do with the ability of the CCS staff and level of service and everything to do with CCS’ proposed ownership change.
“We wanted to make our own decisions rather than have a decision forced upon us by default,” says Westbrook.
The other custodians that made the short list were Cogent, National Custodian Services and State Street. And according to Westbrook, Cogent was the runner up.
