Northern Trust has entered into a strategic alliance with BlackRock to deliver enhanced operations, data and servicing capabilities under its Whole Office banner to mutual clients.
The custodian’s Whole Office offering is an advanced open architecture, multi-asset class solution catering to diverse market participants including asset managers, asset owners, investors and third-party administrators. The new capabilities, which will be delivered through Aladdin, BlackRock’s investment management and operations platform, will provide their clients with increased effectiveness, interoperability and transparency across the back, middle and front office.
“Our Whole Office ecosystem delivers global asset owners and asset managers scale, efficiency, flexibility and optionality, ultimately enabling more informed investment decision making,” says Pete Cherecwich, President of Corporate & Institutional Services at Northern Trust, which has $10.9 trn in assets under custody or administration, and $1.1 trn in assets under management (AUM) as of March 31.
He adds, “We have a long-standing relationship with BlackRock and are excited to be working with them as part of our Whole Office strategy. The alliance connects Northern Trust’s fund accounting, fund administration, asset servicing, and middle office capabilities to BlackRock’s Aladdin platform, creating greater connectivity between asset manager and asset servicer.”
Rob Goldstein, BlackRock’s Chief Operating Officer and head of BlackRock Solutions, says, “The current climate has once again demonstrated the importance of data symmetry and streamlining communication across the investment lifecycle from the asset manager to the asset servicer. BlackRock and Northern Trust are committed to providing increased transparency, accuracy and operating model flexibility for our mutual clients, leveraging our joint capabilities through Aladdin Provider.”
BlackRock, which has $7.3 trn in AUM, also plans to partner with other asset servicers as part of its new Aladdin Provider programme. Earlier in the year it struck a similar servicing transaction with BNP Paribas as well as a deal with Microsoft to offer Aladdin on the technology giant’s cloud platform.
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