European Central Bank, Frankfurt, hired four money managers to execute transactions for its asset-backed securities purchase program, said a spokesman for the bank.
Amundi, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management International, ING Investment Management and State Street Global Advisors were all appointed following a competitive procurement process.
The ABS purchasing program will see the Eurosystem — the ECB and the national central banks of EU member states that have adopted the euro — consider the purchase of simple and transparent asset-backed securities. Purchases are expected to begin next month, following the approval by the ECB's governing council of a legal act on the implementation of the program.
The managers will be responsible for conducting the eligible purchase transactions on “explicit instructions from, and on behalf of, the Eurosystem, which will undertake price checks and due diligence prior to approving the transactions,” the ECB said in a statement on its website. It added that the contracts with the chosen managers contain “a number of provisions to mitigate conflicts of interest,” including separation of teams working for the ECB and those “engaged in any other activities.” The ECB said this will be subject to checks by external auditors.
“The purchases across different segments of eligible euro area ABSs will be allocated to the different executing asset managers, taking into account their relative areas of specialization,” the spokesman said in an email.
