JPMORGAN TO TAKE OVER NORDEA GLOBAL CUSTODY PORTFOLIO

Posted March 27, 2008

LONDON – Global custody and fund services provider JPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services (WSS) plans to acquire the institutional global custody portfolio of Nordea, which is about €200 billion ($316 billion) in assets.

Following the acquisition, JPMorgan WSS plans to offer local depository services to mutual funds through branches in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, as Nordea retains its sub-custody franchise in the Nordic region.

“This acquisition emphasizes JPMorgan’s commitment to the Nordics,” says Conrad Kozak, Global Head of JPMorgan’s Securities Company. “A key cornerstone of our strategy is to align ourselves more closely in-region with clients. To that end, this acquisition is the next stage of evolution of our Nordic expansion.”

With the acquisition, Nordea will appoint JPMorgan as global custodian for its internal institutional clients, such as Nordea Funds and Nordea Life & Pensions.

“Nordea wants to focus on services where we can truly add value to our customers,” says Birger Gezelius, Head of Financial Institutions at Nordea. “Our current institutional clients will gain access to JPMorgan’s best-in-class global custody offering and value-added services, while allowing us to strategically focus on our core competencies.”

With the acquisition, JPMorgan’s custody team will expand from 30 professionals to about 75.