More custody roles in the pipeline?

The future looks promising for anyone looking for custody jobs (particularly at JPMorgan), and slightly ominous for back office staff at fund management firms.

Threadneedle Investments looks like becoming the latest fund manager to outsource its back office functions. The company is reportedly in exclusive negotiations to appoint investment bank JP Morgan as provider of services such as settlement, valuation, pricing and accounting.

Threadneedle, which has about 73bn of assets under management said the move would not result in redundancies. Managing director, Crispin Henderson, told Reuters: "The only real difference in the short term will be a change of operational control - the people, processes and systems will remain unchanged."

Juliana Wheeler, Vice President of Media Relations for JP Morgan Treasury & Securities Services says: "We will be taking on number of Threadneedle's employees. We are hiring a number of people for our outsourcing business in general."

Henderson Global Investors recently announced the outsourcing of its hedge fund middle and back office to JP Morgan Hedge Fund Services through a multi-year signed a multi-year contract for the bank to provide daily operational services and fund administration for its hedge funds out of the London office.

Although F&C Asset Management and Schroders ended outsourcing deals last year, a growing number of fund managers are expected to hand over operations to outside businesses to cut costs and improve services in the face of rising regulatory burdens.