ABN Amro Mellon, the specialist securities services business, has won a ringing endorsement of its European strategy with its selection by Ireland's National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), the government body responsible for the management of future state pension provision, as global custodian for the country's National Pensions Reserve Fund.

The fund was established last year to meet part of the escalating cost to the state of social welfare and public service pensions, arising from the projected ageing of the population. Ireland's ratio of working age population to pensioners currently stands at 4:1. By 2040, this will decrease to 2:1, a pattern repeated to varying degrees throughout Europe. The Irish government has a mandatory commitment to a funding rate of 1% of gross national product annually, and money accumulating in the Fund can not be withdrawn until 2025.