Ned Johnson has decided it's time to get Fidelity's custodial assets platform in shape to give Charles Schwab a run for his money. Literally. Investment News reports Johnson has decided to set aside profit margins for the Fidelity Registered Investment Advisor Group in order to beef up the division's technology.

Interestingly enough Fidelity's first strategy for growing its custodial assets business centered on an acquisition. The MFWire reported that Fidelity had looked at buying Fiserv Investment Support Services, which was eventually purchased by TD Ameritrade.

Fidelity will not have an easy fight, the difference between first second and third in the custodial asset game is made up of hundreds of billions of dollars. Fidelity had $277 billion of assets in custody as of April 30 compared with Schwab Institutional's $524 billion as of March 31. This gives Fidelity the distant second overall spot in the custodial assets fight.

The third player in the game is TD Ameritrade, whose purchase of Fiserv will put it into the number three spot. TD expecs to have more than $100 billion of assets when the deal closes, according to Investment News.  

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