J.P. Morgan’s Worldwide Securities Services business it has been awarded a mandate to provide custody and related services to the The First UK Bus pension scheme and the Home Retail Group pension scheme.

J.P. Morgan will provide custody, accounting, FX and cash management services to both pension funds, and additional passive currency overlay services to Home Retail Group.

The First UK Bus pension scheme has GBP700m in total assets under management and the Home Retail Group pension scheme has GBP640m.

Benjie Fraser, practice lead for J.P. Morgan Worldwide Securities Services’ pension fund business in Europe, says: "We are delighted to provide a full suite of products that can meet the unique needs of different sized clients. We are pleased to be able to support these clients’ specific requirements in the UK market as we continue to expand our work in this sector across Europe."

FirstGroup is the UK’s largest bus operator, running more than one in five of all local bus services, and the UK’s largest rail operator, running nearly a quarter of the passenger rail network and carrying some 285 million passengers a year.

Home Retail Group is a home and general merchandise retailer which sells products under the Argos and Homebase brands.