Agenda and draft minutes

To elect a Chairman for this meeting

RESOLVED to elect Councillor W. Tudor Owen as chairman of the meeting

To elect a Vice-chairman for this meeting

RESOLVED to elect Councillor Stephen Churchman as vice-chairman of the meeting.

To receive any apologies for absence

Councillors Glyn Thomas, Gethin Glyn Williams (Gwynedd Council), Jo Worrall (Snowdonia National Park Authority), Wendy Jones (Conwy Voluntary Community Support), Katherine Owen, Caernarfon Town Council Clerk, Sharon Warnes (Pension Board Chair), Victoria Hallaron (Cartrefi Cymunedol Gwynedd / Pension Board), and Colwyn Bay Town Council.

To receive any declaration of personal interest.

No declarations of personal interest were received from any member present.

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

None to note

To receive the Pension Fund’s Annual Report for 2014/2015

The Annual Report of the Pension Scheme for 2014/15 was submitted by the Head of Finance, who drew attention to an information sheet on the Pension Fund which summarised the Fund's background and the main facts.

Particular attention was given to the main matters of the report, namely:

·            Investment Performance

In 2014/15, an increase in the value of the Fund's assets had been successfully secured from £1.3bn (31/03/2014) to almost £1.5bn (31/03/2015) - an increase of £187m during the year. Following an improved performance than the 2013/14 market, 2014/15 had been a mixed year for companies who invested on behalf of the Pension Fund.  In terms of the expectations of investment (5.9% returns per year), this year’s extremely encouraging returns of 12.2% for the Fund reflected the great performance of the stock market in general.

In 2014/15, the markets had produced a better performance than the previous year in general. Equity had been performing well and property had performed exceptionally well, although our fund had suffered relatively as a result of failing to achieve the unexpectedly high returns on this year's bonds. Reference was made to the outstanding performance of the Fidelity company, who invested in equity on behalf of the fund, and also the very good performance of UBS and Threadneedle when investing in property.  Several companies had reached their benchmarks, while improved returns were expected in the medium-term from Veritas and Partners, who had niche markets.

·            Triennial actuarial valuation 31 March 2016 -

The high price of bonds, with a low level of returns on bonds, would have a negative impact on the discount rate, and would inflate the estimated value of our pension commitments. Thus, despite a very significant increase in the value of our assets on the stock market, that would be counter-balanced by a significant increase in commitments.  Employers would be aware of the increase in commitments, which had been calculated in accordance with the international accounting standard (FRS17, IAS19, etc).  A “snapshot” of that was given in its context.

-     At the Triennial Actuarial Valuation 2013, the funding level of the Scheme had been 85%, ahead of the 79% average across the whole of the LGPS in England and Wales, where funds used a variety of actuarial assumptions and methodologies.

-     This would place Gwynedd comfortably for both deficit and recovery period across all LGPS, but pension funds’ own published results were not on a like-for-like basis.  Following on from the release of the valuation results, the Gwynedd Fund's actuary, Hymans Robertson, had conducted an in-depth review and had rebased these results on a single set of assumptions. When the true relative picture had been revealed, Gwynedd's funding position had been amongst the top ten English and Welsh funds overall.

-     Gwynedd’s implied deficit recovery period, on a common funding basis, was eight years, the shortest of all Welsh funds, and the seventh shortest of all 88 LGPS funds.  Other Welsh funds' implied deficit recovery periods ranged from 11 to 44 years, hence  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.