Northern Trust Asset Management announced plans to grow its relationship with broker-dealer firms owned by minorities, women and people with disabilities that provide equity and investment research.
“Northern Trust Asset Management is among the first in the market with this kind of program, which builds mutually beneficial relationships with firms owned by women, minorities and people with disabilities,” said Chief Investment Officer Bob Browne.
Based on the responses received, the selection team will review and interview select firms to join as preferred providers for the second quarter of 2018. Firms will be evaluated based on quality and fit of equity research, according to the company.
Browne said, “Our process can be enhanced by partnering with firms that offer diversity of thought and deep specialization that challenges us to view things differently, or brings specific expertise in a particular market segment that we can incorporate into our process for the benefit of our clients. Ultimately, we are looking for firms that have deep specialization and expertise in areas that can be additive to our process. This could be industry or sector concentration, or differentiated viewpoints in macro research, Washington, or individual equity research.”
Firms can complete a request for information and send it to Northern Trust Asset Management by 2 p.m. Central Daylight Time on March 30, 2018, to be considered for the selection process, the release said.
Forbes ranked Northern Trust as one of America’s Best Employers for Diversity in 2018. Its Emerging Managers Program has invested about $2.4 billion with minority-owned investment management firms through manager-of-managers programs, according to the company.
Northern Trust Asset Management is a leading global asset management firm serving institutional and individual investors in 29 countries.