In an effort to make greater inroads into the custody and clearing business, Fidelity Institutional has appointed new leaders and combined its technology platform groups into one team.

“Through our ongoing dialogue with clients, we recognized that we could deliver a deeper level of engagement in the custody and clearing industry by better leveraging our scale and breadth of expertise,” said Gerard McGraw, president of Fidelity Institutional.

McGraw and the leaders of Fidelity’s custody and clearing units -- Michael Durbin, president of Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services (IWS), and Sanjiv Mirchandani, president of National Financial -- will oversee a new organizational structure that recognizes that business models in the financial advice industry are converging, the company said.

"Both IWS and National Financial are serving bank clients, often the same client," Durbin explains. A key goal of the realignment is to create service teams with professionals from both the custodian and clearing units to provide bank clients with more integrated services, he added.

The drive for more integration should enhance Fidelity's ability to bring new services to market faster, according to Mirchandani. IWS's Wealth Central and national Financial's Streetscape platforms recently were able to deliver an award-winning mobile platform developed by Fidelity's retail arm to customers within a few weeks. In the past, it would have taken several months.

Fidelity Institutional has more than $1.1 trillion in assets under administration within its clearing and custody units. It announced today the following groups and leaders, all from within the company:

• Bobbi Masiello, currently executive vice president and head of relationship management for Fidelity’s clearing business, will leverage her team to help broker-dealers grow. These firms are focusing on more customized, advanced technology as they try to become more efficient, Fidelity says.

• Michael Norton, currently senior vice president for client experience supporting Fidelity’s clearing clients, will lead a new group that will provide banks with more integrated custody and clearing services. More banks are expanding their wealth management businesses and as a result, their need for custody and clearing services is increasing, says Fidelity.

• Bob Oros, currently executive vice president of sales and relationship management in Fidelity’s custody business, will continue to head RIA sales and relationship management. RIAs continue to be the fastest-growing segment in the financial advice industry, Fidelity noted, and the firm remains committed to serving them.

• Robert Evans, who has served as a regional senior vice president in the RIA custody unit for seven years, will lead a new team that will provide services for strategic acquirers and professional asset managers. He will continue to report to Oros.

• Meg Kelleher, currently executive vice president for sales and relationship management in Fidelity’s custody business, overseeing the trust and third-party administrator market, will lead a new group team that to promote the services of 401(k) retirement plan recordkeepers and to engage more effectively with advisors who sell retirement plans.

• Edward O’Brien, currently senior vice president and head of technology for Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services and Fidelity Family Office Services, will lead a centralized, integrated technology platform group. O'Brien continues to report to Fidelity institutional's chief information officer Ron DePoalo.

• Richard Hart, currently senior vice president and head of platform technology for National Financial, will report to DePoalo and lead a team dedicated to supporting select clients with highly customized technology platform needs, as well as integrating and leveraging those solutions across Fidelity’s platforms.