Former JP Morgan NZ chief, Mark Lawrence, has scored a permanent role at Public Trust in the newly-created head of custody position.
Lawrence left JP Morgan last May following an eight-year career with the US banking conglomerate, where he managed relationships with the group’s custody clients in NZ including the $40 billion ACC fund and the $4 billion plus Government Superannuation Fund.
He joined Public Trust last year in a short-term contract to help the government-owned organisation implement its new NavOne custody system. Public Trust initiated the NavOne project in 2013 with its $26 million sticker price sparking questions in parliament.
In a statement, Public Trust said the newly-created job was “confirmation of Public Trust’s commitment to further strengthen its custody business, ensuring that it is able to offer the best possible service to customers”.
The NavOne system will “be fully integrated into the market” as well as with Public Trust’s global custodian, BNP Paribas, according to the release.
Lawrence said his new role “comes with a clear mandate to grow the business – something that is affirmed by the large investment into NavOne”.
Prior to JP Morgan he served as head of custody sales and service for ANZ NZ.
JP Morgan is currently recruiting for a director of custody and clearing in NZ.
Also last week, the Christchurch-headquartered investment platform and adviser services firm, Consilium, expanded its Auckland presence with the appointment of Marc Griggs as business development manager.
Griggs, whose previous roles include a four-year stint with AMP NZ, would support the group’s “ability to support the quality, reputation and reach of financial advisers” in the Auckland region, Consilium chief, Scott Alman, said in a statement.
Consilium was on track to hit $4 billion in funds under administration this year after seeing growth of over $1 billion in the previous 12 months and a further $1 billion lined up for transfer, Alman said.
The group’s customer service team was set to almost double from 23 to 40 over the next few months, the release says, with a number of other senior staff appointments of late. Recent Consilium additions include product manager, Christian Pearse, and head of marketing, Shelly Peebles.
Alman said the Consilium wrap – built on FNZ technology – was due for a number of upgrades this year including: a new adviser portal; a “dedicated investor app”; and, the addition of “open architecture” application programming interface (API) tools.
“Working with the largest custodial platform provider outside of the US gives Consilium and the NZ adviser community direct access to the latest tools and developing technologies like blockchain, as they come available,” Alman said in the statement.
As well as the wrap, Consilium offers an investment solution based on the Dimensional Fund Advisors ‘smart beta’ philosophy and the Synergy discretionary investment management service.