Illinois State Universities Retirement System, Champaign, terminated Aberdeen Asset Management, which runs $298 million in active global equities, according to a SURS statement.
Aberdeen was not in compliance with the retirement system's investment policy regarding use of brokerage firms owned by minority, female or persons with disabilities, the statement said.
For global equity managers, SURS' minimum expectation of MFD firms is 17.5% of eligible commission dollars. For the last fiscal year, ended June 30, the actual use by all of its three global equity managers combined was 37%, according to a SURS report.
Aberdeen's actual usage and the reason for its non-compliance weren't available.
SURS plans to reallocate Aberdeen's assets to existing passive U.S. and non-U.S. equity managers. The planned allocation to each manager was unavailable. In U.S. indexes, Northern Trust manages $1.4 billion in a Dow Jones Total Stock Market Index fund and RhumbLine Advisers runs $1.1 billion in a customized Wilshire 5000 index fund. In non-U.S. indexes, BlackRock manages $1.1 billion in an MSCI All-Country World ex-U.S. fund and $147 million in an MSCI Emerging Markets index fund.
Daniel L. Allen, chief investment officer of SURS, which oversees $14 billion in defined benefit and $1 billion in defined contribution assets, and Katie Cowley, Aberdeen spokeswoman, couldn't be reached for comment.
