Private bank Coutts has announced a relationship with asset manager BlackRock to reduce the cost of investing for its clients.

The collaboration launches six new exclusive funds for clients of Coutts and the NatWest Group. It consists of three active funds (US equities, UK equities, and Global Investment Grade Credit) and three index funds (US equities, UK equities, and Europe ex-UK equities).

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Furthermore, the Coutts Investment Committee will set each fund’s investment strategy and will maintain responsibility for all decisions relating to asset allocation.

In addition, BlackRock will use its independent third-party manager research platform to select managers for the three active funds. However, the three index funds will be managed in-house. All six funds will be run on BlackRock’s risk management platform Aladdin.

Peter Flavel, CEO, Coutts, said: “Investments in technology have been vital for us to find new ways of passing savings onto our clients and making investing more attractive and appropriate for clients at all stages of their financial journey.

“We have said it before, but ultimately cost should never be a barrier to investing and we have a responsibility to do whatever we can to help our customers realise that fact. BlackRock’s platform will benefit our clients significantly. Its scale and global research capabilities means our asset management team have the best possible tools at their disposal to do what they do best – make clever, market-beating investment decisions. I’m proud to be in a position to present clients with not only savings on the cost to invest, but with greater investment opportunities too.”

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Mohammad Kamal Syed, head of asset management at Coutts, said: “We are always looking for ways to enhance the service we offer clients and how, as the centre for asset management across NatWest Group, we can drive change and help such a broad spectrum of customers save and invest for their financial future.

“By working with BlackRock, we can build on our excellent track-record of delivering first class returns by launching six new funds that will make us even more agile and leverage BlackRock’s world class institutional investment platform for the benefit of our clients.”

This is part of Coutts’ recent strategy for bring down costs. It also brought costs down for its clients with its platform fee starts at just 0.15% for investments up to £1m ($1.3m).

Previously, the entry-level charge was 0.35%.

In addition, the proposition simplifies the existing offer. It sees Coutts reduce the ongoing charage for its Personal Portfolio Fund (PPF) up to 0.1%. The PPF, since its launch in 2016, has grown to hold £750m in AuM.