Nest has appointed Northern Trust as its new fund administrator and custodian, providing key services for Nest’s investment strategy.

As part of the appointment, Northern Trust will look to help the pension scheme coordinate its investments across its diversified portfolio, providing custody services, asset allocation and rebalancing, and performance measurement.

The new contract is expected to be of "significant importance" to the continued success of Nest, as the new partnership is intended to oversee substantial growth in Nest, with the scheme forecast to pass £100bn AUM in 2030.

Commenting on the deal, Nest Invest CEO, Mark Fawcett, stated: “Nest is at an exciting point in our journey. Within the coming years, we’ll likely be the largest UK pension scheme by both AUM size and membership.

"We’ve needed to consider how we manage that growth to ensure we continue delivering a world-class service for our 13 million members.

“The fund administrator is one of our most important contracts. It provides the platform to manage our growth across our highly diversified portfolio, including enhancing the member journey across our range of funds as we implement our private markets program.

“Northern Trust really impressed us in what was a competitive procurement. We have specific requirements for asset allocation and rebalancing, and their capability to manage sophisticated strategies is particularly strong.

"The flexibility they can offer, to evolve the services we need around our future growth, will be crucial.”

Adding to this, Northern Trust UK head of asset owners, Ian Hamilton, said: “We are proud that Nest have selected Northern Trust as their asset servicing partner to support their evolving needs as they deliver on their long-term strategic growth strategy.

"This mandate is testament to Northern Trust’s track record in supporting complex asset owners deliver transformative change and we are thrilled to partner with the UK’s largest defined contribution master trust and a leading innovator in the pension sector.”

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