US custody bank BNY Mellon Corp said it has reached an agreement to acquire Cutwater Asset Management, a fixed-income unit of MBIA Inc. Cutwater will be part of BNY Mellon Investment Management, which oversees $1.6 trillion in assets. Cutwater has about $23 billion in assets. In June, Trian, the activist investment firm founded by Nelson Peltz, had acquired a 2.5% stake in BNY Mellon. Trian stepped in after the bank’s pretax margin was smaller than rivals. The Cutwater acquisition is a relatively small for BNY Mellon, the world’s eighth-largest asset manager with $1.6 trillion in investments for institutions and wealthy individuals. The deal is expected to close next year. BNY Mellon Investment Management has 16 investment boutiques around the world.
