The National Trust has selected Northern Trust as the sole custodian of its £881m of financial assets.

The decision will “make monitoring the portfolio’s risk and exposures faster and easier” following the financial crisis, said assistant director and treasury of the National Trust, Paul Maguire.

Prior to Northern Trust’s appointment the charity’s three investment managers, JP Morgan Asset Management, Newton Investment Management and Madlock, had their own separate custodians. But, Maguire said: “It was becoming increasingly time consuming for to handle aggressive reporting for the portfolio.

“We wanted the entire investment portfolio to be under one custodian. This enables us to access reporting and performance data both by individual investment manager and in aggregate for all four managers.”

Northern Trust was chosen from three custodian banks pitching for the contract.

“We chose Northern Trust as it is the globally recognised as a major player in the custody market. Their fee quote was competitive, and we were impressed by the reporting systems and the experience and knowledge of their staff,” said Maguire.

The decision follows the selection of Longview Partners to run a £170m global equities mandate.