Goldman Sachs got its largest-ever assignment to manage money for New York State’s largest pension fund.
The New York State Common Retirement Fund is hiring Goldman to manage $2 billion of the $180 billion it holds for New York State employees. Goldman will also be advising the fund more broadly on its entire $100 billion portfolio of stocks.
Goldman pursued the deal for a year and a half, before winning the assignment recently, according to a person at the fund briefed on the deal. It is the largest such assignment Goldman has ever received. The Wall Street firm does similar work for the South Carolina state pension fund and the State of Alaska’s investment fund, among others.
The $2 billion being managed by Goldman will not go into the bank’s investments. Instead, Goldman’s asset management division will help the pension fund pick seven or eight outside fund managers that can supplement the fund’s largely passive stock investments. The money was previously managed internally by the fund.
The top officer at the pension fund, the New York State comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, has emphasized the importance of Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs to the state’s economy and tax coffers. Each year, Mr. DiNapoli releases a survey of Wall Street bonuses.