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Consultant to advise on selection of global custodian

The Treasury has appointed Towers Perrin Forster & Crosby, Inc, an international consulting organisation, to advise on the selection of a global custodian for assets of the Grant Schools Provident Fund and the Subsidised Schools Provident

Fund.

The Funds are statutory defined-contribution retirement schemes covering teachers employed by the grant schools and subsidised schools respectively.

Currently, the combined assets of the Funds amount to over HK$20 billion. The global custodian will be appointed to administer assets (for example, overseas quoted shares and fixed interest securities) placed under the management of external managers which will initially amount to about HK$5 billion. Certain classes of assets (for example, fixed interest securities) managed internally by the Treasury for the Funds may also be placed under the custody of the global custodian subject to services and fees being appropriate.

Towers Perrin will be using its specialist team experienced in conducting custodian searches on this assignment. The team members include Greg Cooper, Director of Actuarial and Asset Consulting at Towers Perrin, Hong Kong and David Taplin, Director of Custody Consulting at Towers Perrin, Australia.

It is envisaged that request for proposals will be invited this month (November) from the short-list of providers of global custody services compiled by Towers Perrin and that implementation of the new custody arrangement would occur around February next year.

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