Most chairmen in the last few months of their tenure might be forgiven for winding down their workload and brushing up on their golf swings.
Not so State Street's 60-year-old Marshall "Marsh" Carter, who has cemented a two-year relationship with China's largest bank by signing a groundbreaking asset management deal.
Looking to the huge future potential of the Chinese investment market, State Street is allying with the Industrial&Commercial Bank of China. Under the deal ICBC is appointing State Street as its external asset manager and will also provide support and advice to the US bank on breaking into the Chinese investment market.
Carter, who signed the deal with Tian Ruizhang, ICBC's vice chairman, says State Street, which already has an office in China, has been working towards this deal since 1998 when it began providing ICBC officials with training programmes and seminars in Boston and Hong Kong.
"We are extremely pleased to partner with such a key player in China's economic transformation," he says. "Given its huge labour population of 700 million, the nationwide pension system and open-end mutual fund system China is now contemplating represent a tremendous long-term opportunity for China's investors and for us."