ASSET MANAGER Pioneer Investments has recruited a senior executive from Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM) to lead a drive to win institutional business from Irish pension funds, its first major attempt to sell into the Irish market since setting up in the IFSC in the 1990s.

In a separate development, the National Treasury Management Agency has selected Pioneer and two other international groups to manage a €600 million emerging markets fund for the National Pension Reserve Fund. The other managers are London-based Principal Global Investors (Europe) and Boston firm Batterymarch Financial Management.

Pioneer is already the biggest fund manager in Ireland, with €110 billion in assets managed from its Dublin office for international clients. The company has poached Dave Santry from BIAM, where he was senior relationship manager for the Irish customer business, to develop a client base in the Irish market.

There was no comment last night from Bank of Ireland on the departure of Mr Santry from BIAM, which never regained scale after suffering a crippling loss of valuable mandates when four senior investment staff were headhunted by another group in 2004.

At Pioneer Mr Santry will be head of institutional business development for Ireland. He previously worked for Allianz Global Investors and Dresdner RCM Global Investors in the US.

Paul Price, global head of institutional business at Pioneer, said the group saw potential to win 10 per cent of mandates in the €60 billion defined benefit pensions sector in Ireland within five years.

He said Pioneer previously chose not to embark on a major drive to sell into the Irish market as the tax status of foreign staff working in its Dublin office would have given it an unfair advantage. That tax status had now changed.

Mr Price sees the scale of the company's existing operation in Dublin as a big advantage in its drive to take business away from rival asset managers in Ireland.