Northern Trust, the Chicago-headquartered global banking group, has enhanced its “forward-looking” investment risk system so that clients can get a clearer idea of whether their assets and liabilities match, an important issue not just for pension funds.

The enhancements cover asset-liability reporting; asset allocation and trend analysis.

“A key step forward has been made in bringing together the analysis of investment risks and their impact on a pension fund’s ability to meet its changing liabilities over time in a single report, rather than looking at the two dynamics in isolation.  The enhancements also offer clients an improved user experience with more informative graphics and intuitive visual information,” Ian Castledine, global head of investment risk and compliance product for Northern Trust.

The bank has provided such risk and performance services to institutional asset management clients for more than 30 years. Northern Trust had assets under custody of $5.0 trillion, and assets under investment management of $803.0 billion (figures for the end of June).