State Street Appoints Unit Leader in U.K.
State Street Corp. of Boston has hired a head of operations for its asset servicing unit in the United Kingdom.Wilson Leech, who most recently was director of retail fund administration at Bank of New York Europe Ltd., is to join the State Street unit as a senior vice president in about three months, said David J. Bilbe, managing director and senior vice president of State Street Bank in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Leech's responsibilities are to include overseeing operations, administration, and systems development for the division, which provides custody and administration for mutual funds, separate accounts, and pension funds.
State Street has $6 trillion of assets under custody and $667 billion of assets under management.
- Cheryl Winokur
TD Waterhouse Links with Site for Disabled
TD Waterhouse Group said Thursday that it has agreed to supply brokerage services to users of WeMedia.com, a service for the disabled.A range of financial services from TD Waterhouse, the New York discount brokerage business mostly owned by Toronto-Dominion Group, are to be accessible at the site's We Financial section.
Such alliances have proven popular in the discount brokerage business. FleetBoston Financial Corp.'s Quick & Reilly unit struck a similar deal with the Gay Financial Network of New York last year.
Northern Trust Starts Unit to Aid Small Banks
Northern Trust Corp. of Chicago has created a unit to help small banks' trust departments obtain investment contracts with municipalities and other governmental bodies.The correspondent trust services division has already helped Bank of Santa Fe win a three-year contract to manage the State of New Mexico's $350 million insurance fund.
Northern Trust helped$443 million-asset Bank of Santa Fe draft the bid, investment guidelines, and custodial agreement, said David C. Batrich, a vice president in the correspondent trust unit.
Northern Trust will supply Bank of Santa Fe with accounting systems, data base services, and other resources, Mr. Batrich said.
Separately, Northern Trust is using its Atlanta-based mutual fund record keeping unit, Northern Trust Retirement Consulting, as a tool in fund sales.
Records from the unit tell when an investor terminates a retirement plan or takes a distribution, and the banking company can use this information to make sales.
Northern Trust will only act with a plan sponsor's approval, said Lloyd Wennlund, managing director for mutual funds at the company's principal bank unit, Northern Trust Co.
"We're trying to be proactive with plans to provide tools and resources for subsequent investing," he said.
- Karen Talley
Suretrade Kicks Off IRA Incentive Promo
Suretrade, the on-line discount brokerage owned by FleetBoston Financial Corp.'s Quick & Reilly unit, has begun an IRA sign-up promotion.Those opening a new IRA account with at least $500 before April 15 are to get a $75 gift certificate good for any Web site that accepts major credit cards.
A spokeswoman for Lincoln, R.I.-based Suretrade said the promotion - Suretrade's first - should help gather additional assets.
Suretrade is making the gift-certificate offer via e-mail to customers who have brokerage but not IRA accounts and to people who have registered with the Suretrade site, the spokeswoman said.
- Amy L. Anderson
