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March 12, 2026

Delivering Private Capital Administration Services for StepStone Group

Supporting a global private markets firm’s Luxembourg fund umbrella and its European distribution.

Client Background

StepStone Group (StepStone) is a global private markets firm providing investment solutions, advisory and data services for its clients.

These include the world’s largest public and private defined benefit and defined contribution pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies, as well as endowments, foundations, family offices and private wealth clients. The latter includes high-net-worth and mass affluent individuals.

StepStone develops private markets portfolios designed to meet these clients’ goals across the real estate, private equity, infrastructure, and private debt asset classes. As of December 31, 2025, StepStone was responsible for approximately $811 billion of total capital, including $220 billion of assets under management.[1]

 

The Opportunity

In 2022, StepStone’s management team sought to launch a new European fund umbrella to capitalise on growing interest from investors in gaining global exposure to private equity, private debt, and real assets in a single investment vehicle. The fund would be focused on supporting distribution primarily to high net worth and accredited investors across Europe.

Having been a client of Northern Trust since 2005, its team approached us for input on the optimum range of servicing solutions that might support the fund and its distribution strategy.

In its engagement with Northern Trust, StepStone’s requirements were for:

  • Experience in administering private capital funds.
  • Asset servicing capabilities for driving automation, efficiency, and standardization across its investment portfolio of private assets, with particular focus on cash and debt instruments.
  • A partner able to support StepStone through the challenges of growth, with flexibility to help its team seize opportunities as they arise in the market and capacity to support the launch of potential future sub-funds.

 

The Solution

Our experience is that understanding a fund’s underlying assets is key to defining its operating model. We therefore sought to work collaboratively with StepStone to understand its fund launch and distribution plans and the book of asset types that the fund would invest in.

The launch of StepStone Luxembourg SCA SICAV-RAIF, a Luxembourg umbrella fund, and its inaugural sub-fund, StepStone Private Markets, took place in August 2022, supported by Northern Trust as its provider of global custody, depositary, and fund administration services.

We provided asset servicing, banking, and money market fund services to support StepStone’s investments in cash and loans of varying complexity. This included specialist fund administration and accounting services for private debt, drawing on technology and banking capabilities that reduce manual loan administration and increase automation of cash transactions.

Northern Trust also provides credit facilities and money market sweep services, the latter automating the transfer of reserve cash into bank accounts providing an interest rate matching our client’s risk and return parameters.

 

The Results

In October 2022, StepStone announced the first close of the SCA SICAV-RAIF with over $100 million[2]. The fund has steadily accumulated assets since, reaching more than $1.7 billion at the end of 2025[3]. StepStone has also expanded the products it is able to provide for investors via the fund umbrella by launching three further sub-funds under the structure to date.

As part of its evolving distribution strategy, in 2025 StepStone converted its Luxembourg funds into UCI Part II vehicles to allow professional investors and semi-professional investors greater access to its fund products.

January 2025 also saw the launch of its new StepStone (Luxembourg) SCA SICAV - StepStone Private Credit ELTIF under the European Union’s updated European Long-Term Investment Fund (ELTIF) 2.0 fund regime, which opens-up wider opportunities for asset managers to offer a purpose-built entry point for European investors in illiquid assets.

Northern Trust supported these developments and today continues to collaborate with StepStone as its asset servicing partner.

 

[1] Source: https://shareholders.stepstonegroup.com/financial-information/financial-results

[2] Source: Stepstone Firm News: StepStone Conversus Announces First Close of StepStone (Luxembourg) SCA SICAV-RAIF – StepStone Private Markets at Over US$100 Million, October 20, 2022

[3] Source: Northern Trust

 

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