5 GWYNEDD PENSION FUND'S DRAFT STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2020 PDF 197 KB
To consider the
Head of Finance’s Report
Additional documents:
Decision:
The information was accepted.
Minutes:
Submitted – a report by the Head of Finance providing
details of the Pension Fund's financial activities for the year ending 31st
March 2020. It was highlighted that the (draft) accounts were currently subject
to audit which was being undertaken by Deloitte. Following a decision by Audit Wales that
accounts would remain open to public inspection until the beginning of
September, the final accounts would be presented to
the Audit and Governance Committee on 14th September 2020.
It was reported that the value of
the Fund on 31st March was down £143m, this was due to the implications of the
Covid-19 pandemic. It was noted that a significant
fall in market value was reflected at the end of March, but the values had now
risen and remained stable.
Reference was made to Notes 12, 13
and 14 where further information was included on investment costs in light of
Gwynedd Fund's involvement with the Wales Pension Partnership's arrangement of
pooling combined investments.
In response to questions regarding the
costs of the Wales Pension Partnership (WPP) and Host Authority – note 13
(£70k), was there a saving in the fees reduction compared with the costs for
the Gwynedd Council Fund, and how could we ensure value for money, it was noted
that the situation was very difficult to test and that the important thing was
the returns as opposed to the amount of fees. It was
considered that our membership of the WPP provided economies of scale,
which had resulted in reduced fees, and there was greater resilience in being
part of a larger fund. It was noted that the sum for
2018/19 had been omitted in error.
In response to a comment regarding a significant fall in
equity dividends (Note 15), it was reported that all
dividends were automatically reinvested into their relevant funds and not
distributed as investment income. The fund value and change in market value on
these funds would reflect both capital appreciation / depreciation plus reinvested investment income.
RESOLVED to accept the information.