Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies were received from Cllr Beca Roberts (Employer Representative)

To receive any declaration of personal interest

None to note

To note any items which are urgent business in the opinion of the Chairman so that they may be considered

None to note

The Chairman shall propose that the minutes of the meeting of this committee   held on 20^th July 2023 be signed as a true record.

The Chair signed the minutes of the previous meeting of this committee, held on 20 July 2023, as a true record.

To submit, for information, minutes of the Pensions Committee meeting held on the 18^th of September 2023

The minutes of the Pensions Committee held on 18 September 2023 were submitted for information. 

To receive and note the draft Annual Report

A (draft) report was submitted by the Investment Manager detailing the activities of the Pension Fund during the year ending on 31 March 2023. The report, in accordance with the CIPFA guidance, included details of membership, administration, investments, financial performance, actuary's report, accounts and the five standard statements of the Fund. The report would be reviewed as part of the accounts audit by Audit Wales and submitted to the Annual Meeting at the end of November.

Gratitude was expressed for the report and to the staff associated with preparing the work.

Observations arising from the ensuing discussion:

·         There were missing titles in the staffing indicators table

·         Was the impact of Covid responsible for a reduction in estimated deaths?

·         Questioned why Shrewsbury's Pension Officers' Group had been included under the West Pennines area and not the West Midlands

·         Needed to consider opening discussions with organisations / companies to avoid contract matters

·         The training sessions had been beneficial

·         How does the Board review and ensure compliance with the regulators' code? A suggestion was made to include this as a future item.

In response to an observation regarding performance measures and whether there were general measures for each fund, it was noted that there were no consistency or comparisons at present, but work was being undertaken with Welsh funds to discuss the matter, to set guidelines and aim towards setting measures for every fund by 2024/25. In response, after the measures are adopted, it was suggested that it would be beneficial for performance measures to be a standing item on the agenda of the Pension Board and Pensions Committee in future.

In response to an observation that one category had not reached the benchmark (members' addresses with a score of 97.14%), and that it was estimated that banks would have a member's address details, it was noted that the information mainly referred to members who had deferred / frozen their pension or those who had left. In order to improve the score of members' addresses, it was added that the pensions department worked with the ATMOS company to trace addresses recorded as ones that had disappeared (approximately 2000).

RESOLVED to accept the information.

To consider and note the information.

The Investment Manager submitted a report, providing a formal update to members on the developments of the Wales Pension Partnership (WPP). She reported that the Head of Finance and the Investment Manager represented the Fund in all the pool's meetings, and that the collaboration continued to go from strength to strength on matters such as freedom of information requests, voting and engagement and generally sharing good practice across the funds. It was noted that 83% of Gwynedd's Fund had now been pooled with the WPP – Gwynedd was amongst the highest in the fund.

The Manager drew attention to the equity funds and referred to the performance of the Global Growth Fund, which had three underlying managers operating a very different style to each other – Baillie Gifford, Pzena and Veritas. The Members were reminded that this fund, in the early years, had performed very well, and this was mainly due to the performance of Baillie Gifford. However, Baillie Gifford was now underperforming, mainly due to the nature of their investments and their performance being 'cyclical' (sometimes good, and other times not so good). It was added that the performance was being monitored closely and that discussions were being held with the Partnership and the Partnership's advisors, Hymans Robertson.

In the context of the Global Opportunities Fund, it was reported that the fund included eight underlying managers and, although not all managers would perform well at the same time, the varied approach would lead to a stable position and the fund performing ahead of the benchmark over the long term, but the last three months had been challenging.

In the context of Fixed Income Funds, reference was made to the Multi-asset Credit Fund, which had five different investment managers. It was reported that the fund had underperformed, which had been driven in a large part by instability in the market with the war in Ukraine, Covid restrictions in China and the impact of rapid interest increases. Despite concerns that the fund had gone through a challenging period, it was added that this was a long-term investment commitment and, therefore, the aim was to continue with the investments in the hope of experiencing progress at the end of the instability.

When discussing the Absolute Returns Bond Fund, which had four investment managers, it was highlighted that conditions in this field had also been challenging with the impact of inflation and interest rates, but again, it was a long-term commitment and therefore there was a willingness to continue with the investments in the hope that the conditions would improve.

It was reported that the Emerging Markets Fund, launched in October 2021, had six underlying investment managers including Bin Yuan, a China specialist. It was noted that conditions were again very challenging, and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.