Dutch insurer Aegon NV said on Monday it will pool its investment activities into a single 40 billion euro ($51 billion) fund platform to be serviced by US bank Citigroup.
"The platform is the first full service solution to support the process and administrative needs of investors, institutions, asset managers and pension funds who operate in multiple jurisdictions throughout Europe," Aegon said in a statement.
The investment platform will handle investments from pension funds, private investors and Aegon's investments for its own account, a spokeswoman said.
Citigroup will provide back-office services to the Aegon funds such as administration, custody, securities lending and performance management.
The Aegon deal with the US bank is part of a trend in which asset managers outsource administration and other services to banks to concentrate solely on investing money. Other major players in outsourcing of fund services include US-based bank Northern Trust and State Street Corp.
The bank will set up a new fund support system for the Aegon funds, and it will also offer the service to other clients in future, a spokeswoman for Citigroup said.
It is expected that the platform will be fully operational by the third quarter of 2007. It will be based in the Netherlands after the intervention of the Dutch financial authorities, preventing the fund going to Ireland.
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