Northern Trust has been selected to provide outsourced trading to global asset manager Nedgroup Investments via its Integrated Trading Solutions (ITS).
Amy Thorne
Specifically, Northern Trust will support Nedgroup with its new in-house multi-boutique fixed income platform.
The firm confirmed that the premier fund on the platform, Nedgroup Investment’s Global Strategic Bond Fund, is set to feature a range of active fixed income strategies.
Amy Thorne, head of integrated trading solutions for EMEA at Northern Trust highlighted that despite the popularity of equity outsourcing among managers, the outsourcing of a fixed income desk has remained less common.
“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.”
The move is the latest in a string of entities outsourcing some part of its trading to Northern Trust. Last December, UK-based investment management firm Waverton outsourced a portion of its trading to Northern Trust Integrated Trading Solutions (ITS) with the firm supporting the trading of equities, derivatives and fixed income assets.
In May 2024, Singapore-based investment manager New Silk Road outsourced its trading to Northern Trust as it sought to fortify its offering as T+1 loomed, whilst most recently, earlier this month, UK-based wealth management firm True Potential chose Northern Trust to provide outsourced trading services across equities, fixed income and exchange traded derivatives, with coverage from multiple trading locations.
David Roberts, head of fixed income at Nedgroup Investments, asserted: “It’s difficult to over-estimate the importance of access to market liquidity in bond fund management. 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.”