Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management board, Boston, hired foreign-exchange transaction cost consultant FX Transparency to analyze the $49.5 billion state system’s currency trades for 2009 and 2010, confirmed Stan Mavromates, MassPRIM’s chief investment officer.
He said the board expects to receive the results of that review “sometime in June.”
Mr. Mavromates said MassPRIM staff has been “looking at this” ever since the first reports in 2009 of public funds suing their custody banks for allegedly overcharging for the banks’ currency trading services. But he said, “We’re not experts,” and the board decided it was “important for us to hire an independent firm” to analyze the Massachusetts system’s trades.
He said what MassPRIM does following the review obviously “depends on the results.”
John Galanek, COO of FX Transparency, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Bank of New York Mellon has been MassPRIM’s custodian for more than a decade. Mellon spokesman Mike Dunn declined to comment.
Jon Carlisle, a spokesman for state Treasurer Steve Grossman, who serves as chairman of the PRIM board, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
