State Treasurer Steve Grossman and the state's Pension Reserves Investment Board have charged a major investment bank of overcharging the state employees' retirement fund $20 million in fees for foreign currency trading.
“These overcharges are unacceptable and we will take every step available to recover lost funds and prevent this from happening in the future,” Grossman said in a statement.
The treasurer and the PRIM board hired a Framingham-based consultant to review the pension fund's foreign exchange transactions, which occur when investments either earn or cost the fund foreign currency. The consultant's report charges that Bank New York Mellon charged PRIM an average of nearly 31 basis points for such transactions, instead of the industry average of 4 basis points.
We want to thank Treasurer Grossman, the members of the PRIM board, and all of the public officials involved for their diligence on behalf of state employees, retirees, and taxpayers--all of whom benefit when the state's public pension fund is sound and well run.
You can read more about the situation here.
