Press Releases

Greater Gwent (Torfaen) Council Selects ABN AMRO Mellon for Global Custody Mandate

LONDON, October 22, 2002—Greater Gwent (Torfaen) County Borough Council has appointed ABN AMRO Mellon to provide global custody and value-added services for its employee pension scheme, the Greater Gwent (Torfaen) Pension Fund.

In addition to core custody services, ABN AMRO Mellon is providing investment accounting, securities lending, performance measurement and analytics to the fund, which held approximately £700 million of assets across all classes at its most recent actuarial valuation.

The Greater Gwent (Torfaen) Pension Fund has approximately 32,000 members, comprising some 18,000 active contributors, 4,000 preserved benefits and 10,000 pensioners. This is the first direct engagement of a global custodian for Greater Gwent (Torfaen) County Borough Council.

Philip Nash, Director of Finance for the Council, comments: "Our decision to appoint a global custodian was based on an increased need for consolidated reporting and the desire to benefit from value-added services. ABN AMRO Mellon demonstrated that it has the best systems, services and people to meet these requirements."

"Local authority wins are highly sought after in the market and fiercely competed over, which makes it all the more satisfying for us when we win clients such as Torfaen," adds Nadine Chakar, CEO of ABN AMRO Mellon. "Our continuing success in this market is testament to the quality of our products and services."

ABN AMRO Mellon Global Securities Services is a 50-50 joint marketing alliance between ABN AMRO Bank N.V. and Mellon Financial Corporation, providing global custody securities services to institutions around the world with the exception of North America. In July 2002, ABN AMRO and Mellon agreed to formalise the alliance which, subject to regulatory approval, will create a new, separately capitalised financial services company. The alliance combines ABN AMRO's worldwide servicing presence with Mellon's advanced technology and product capabilities. ABN AMRO Mellon focuses on providing both global custody and value-added products and services, such as compliance monitoring, investment accounting, performance measurement and analytics. Visit ABN AMRO Mellon's Web site at www.abnamromellon.com.