Nest selects BlackRock’s Aladdin as its investment risk platform

Nest, the UK’s largest workplace pension scheme by members, and BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, today announced a new partnership, where Nest will use BlackRock Aladdin to manage the risk of its entire investment strategy on a single platform.

Managing key investment risks within Nest’s portfolio is a crucial part of its long-term plan to continue evolving its investment strategies across both public and private markets.

The Whole Portfolio View and Aladdin Climate components of the Aladdin platform allow Nest to monitor more than 3,000 risk factors across fixed income, equity, foreign exchange, and private markets, and quantify the financial impact of climate-related risks. This will help Nest build a more resilient portfolio and enhance its capability to undertake greater and more sophisticated risk analysis.

Discussing the procurement, Jiwei Dong, Nest’s Head of Market Risk & Asset Allocation, said:

“The complexities facing a sophisticated portfolio like Nest’s are significant. It’s crucial we upgrade our services in line with our projected growth to be a £100bn scheme by the end of the decade.

“Just in the past few years, we’ve expanded our investable universe to include more illiquid assets while also adopting more complicated public market investment strategies. Aladdin allows us to get a holistic view on risk profiles of our multi-asset portfolios, and fully integrate ESG factors within our risk management process, matching the level of complexity we need.”

Speaking about the expanding partnership, Sarah Melvin, Head of UK, BlackRock, said:

“Nest plays a crucial role in supporting over 12 million people in the UK saving for their retirement. We share a joint purpose of helping more and more people experience financial well-being, so are delighted to be deepening our long-standing partnership.

“We are proud to have been chosen by Nest to provide enhanced analytics through Aladdin’s Investment Risk and Aladdin Climate platforms, which will in turn help them to serve their members better.”

Notes to editors

About Nest

Nest was set up by the government to ensure every UK employer could offer a workplace pension to their employees. Since then, it’s grown to become the largest workplace pension scheme in the country with more than 12 million members. One in three of the UK working population currently have a retirement fund with Nest.

As a not-for-profit pension scheme, Nest doesn't answer to shareholders. It’s set up to serve its customers’ interests and aims to help millions of people enjoy a better retirement. Nest’s members benefit from an award-winning investment strategy and one of the most diversified DC portfolios in the UK.

The pension scheme currently manages more than £33bn on behalf of its members, taking in around £500m a month in new contributions. By the end of the next decade Nest is expected to have around £100bn assets under management.
 

About BlackRock

BlackRock’s purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a leading provider of financial technology, we help millions of people build savings that serve them throughout their lives by making investing easier and more affordable. For additional information, please visit BlackRock.