BlackRock hired J.P. Morgan Chase as custodian to more than $1 trillion in BlackRock client assets, the two firms announced separately on Wednesday.
The assets, from BlackRock trust clients, will be moved over a two-year period. State Street Corp. had been custodian of the assets, BlackRock said.
The assets were moved to get “cost savings through decreased operating expenses at the fund level,” Derek Stein, senior managing director and head of business operations and technology at BlackRock, said in a news release from the company.
“BlackRock is a valued and continues to be a longstanding client of State Street,” according to a statement from Anne McNally, State Street spokeswoman.
BlackRock said State Street would continue as custodian for other BlackRock client assets, including its iShares exchange-traded funds, but neither BlackRock spokesman Ed Sweeney nor Ms. McNally said how much in assets State Street will have under custody for BlackRock going forward.
J.P. Morgan currently has $20.5 trillion of assets under custody before the BlackRock transfer. State Street had $29 trillion in assets under custody as of Dec. 31.
Also on Wednesday, Allianz Global Investors hired State Street as custodian on its €450 billion ($481 billion) in total client assets.
“We are moving from a fragmented vendor landscape into one global provider,” an Allianz spokeswoman said in an email. “The goal was to reduce complexity and to create a more simple, yet scalable, operations model.”
The spokeswoman was unable to respond to questions concerning the previous custody providers.
