Absa has been appointed to provide custody and administration services for over 3.5 billion rands (218 million USD) of assets for the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), one of the leading institutional investors on the continent.
The mandate, previously managed by Standard Bank, includes settlement of transactions, investment cash management, and asset tracking.
The GEPF has over 1.2 million active members and around 565,000 retirees and beneficiaries. It manages pension rights for employees in the South African public sector, giving its asset management a significance beyond the local market.
This appointment expands a relationship that began in 2001, when the bank started providing transactional services to the GEPF, including deposit processing and electronic banking solutions.
Absa also handles reporting and coordination of custody operations, as part of the fund’s control and governance mechanisms.
Standard Bank held this mandate since the early 1990s, ensuring a steady stream of income based on fees and maintaining a dominant position in the institutional asset management landscape. The loss of this account removes a significant volume of assets from the bank’s custody books.
