Northern Trust's local branch seen as 'centre of excellence'

Belinda Burgess, pictured, has moved to the island to replace Paul Cutts at the helm of a 270-strong office. She has spent the past 10 years with Northern Trust, most recently in Stockholm, having launched a 24-year career in financial services in Luxembourg with Chase Manhattan.

Miss Burgess said she was positive about Guernsey as a jurisdiction and particularly the Northern Trust base in the island, which opened in 1972.

'Guernsey is quite unique for NT in terms of the services we offer from this jurisdiction, with fund administration, custody services, banking and fiduciary services – it's a very interesting and diverse suite of products.'

The company is the largest administrator locally of domiciled and non-domiciled funds by total net assets, with some $64bn under administration, and has a significant lead in the local custodian market with $20bn.

The local office is seen as a 'centre of excellence' within the wider group for private equity and real estate funds, and the move of Paul Cutts, Miss Burgess's predecessor as head of Guernsey, to a newly-created role as head of alternative investment services for global fund services EMEA, showed the emerging importance of alternative asset classes for the group.