Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Head of Finance

Submitted – the report of the Head of Finance Department notifying Board members of the progress towards pooling investments. It was noted that a report had been submitted to the Pensions Committee on 9 June 2016 providing an update on the investment pooling consultation for the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) pensions funds in England and Wales.

The following points were highlighted:

·      Confirm the intention to proceed to use a third party operator for joint-investment

·      It was confirmed that individual funds would continue to have control over their own investment strategies (allocating to categories of assets)

·      Investment transfer discussions needed to be held to consider arrangements and implementation

·      That there was a need to engage regarding the role of Pension Boards, and whether a Pension Board for Wales would be needed

·      A Joint-committee (including Chairs of Pension Committees and Chief Officers) would be established to monitor and challenge the work of the operator Eversheds company had been appointed to advise on the constitution of the Joint-Committee - principles had been established

·      The Government would not give guidance in terms of the % of the fund to be invested in infrastructure - the Pool would be expected to make a statement of ambition (5% - 10%).

·      It was difficult to identify savings from the process - the Government would not insist that the Pool would adhere to its estimated saving

During the ensuing discussion the following points were highlighted:

·         In the context of the categories of assets it was noted that risk and performance needed to be monitored. Discussions regarding fund rationalisation would need to be held in order to take advantage of the value / size

·         There would be advantages of establishing a Pension Board for Wales

·         Would there be an opportunity for Members to be a part of the management procedure? The suggestion had already been made by Unison

·         Would CEM Benchmarking be monitoring the situation in the context of costs and savings?

It was outlined that the decision of the Pensions Committee was 'to delegate the power to the Head of Finance Department, in consultation with the Chair of the Committee, to agree on the content of the Wales Pool presentation to the DCLG in July 2016'. It was intended to circulate a copy of the presentation to members of the Pensions Committee and members of the Pension Board. All were reminded that there would be confidential elements to the report.

The information was accepted.