Alabama Retirement Systems, Montgomery, hired State Street as the $24.5 billion system's global custodian, replacing J.P. Morgan Investor Services, said Darren Schulz, acting CIO. The change was made because the level of service has suffered since Chase merged with J.P. Morgan in 2000, Mr. Schulz said. Mr. Schulz said other finalists were Bank of New York, Russell/Mellon, and J.P. Morgan, which was allowed to rebid. Kate Makuen, J.P. Morgan spokeswoman, declined to comment.
Separately the system changed its asset allocation slightly, increasing equities to 50% of assets from 46% of assets and reducing cash to 4.1%. Fixed income remains at 34.8%, real estate at 6% and alternatives at 5.1%. No consultant was used.
