Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room A - County Hall, Llandrindod Wells, Powys. View directions

Contact: Carol Johnson  01597 826206

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

To receive apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Apologies were received from County Councillors A Davies and T Van-Rees.

 

2.

Declarations of interest

To receive any declarations of interest from Members relating to items to be considered on the Agenda.

Minutes:

Members of the Committee declared interests as members of the Local Government Pensions Scheme.  These are personal interests, not prejudicial interests in accordance with Paragraph 12(b) (iv) of the Members Code of Conduct 2016.

 

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 315 KB

To authorise the Chair to sign the minutes of the last meeting held on 12 December, 2019 as a correct record.

Minutes:

The Chair was authorised to sign the minutes of the Pensions and Investment Committee meeting held on 12 December, 2019 as a correct record.

 

4.

Pensions Board minutes pdf icon PDF 379 KB

To consider a report from the Powys Pension Board Chair on the Board meeting held on 26 November, 2019 and to receive for information the draft minutes of the meeting.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received the report from the Chair of Powys Pension Board of the meeting held on 26 November, 2019 and the draft minutes.  The Chair advised that cyber security was a high profile issue for pension funds.  The Pension Fund Manager advised that he had drafted a cyber security policy, which was being reviewed by the IT department.  The draft would be considered by the Board and Committee in due course.

 

 

5.

Pension Fund discretionary powers pdf icon PDF 28 KB

To consider the report.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered the discretionary powers policies.

 

It was moved and seconded to agree the policy.

 

RESOLVED

Reason for decision

That the discretionary powers policies, as set out in Appendix A be approved.

As per report.

 

6.

Exempt item

The Monitoring Officer has determined that category 3 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules applies to the following items. His view on the public interest test (having taken account of the provisions of Rule 14.8 of the Council's Access to Information Rules) was that to make this information public would disclose information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).  These factors in his view outweigh the public interest in disclosing this information.

Members are asked to consider these factors when determining the public interest test, which they must decide when considering excluding the public from this part of the meeting.

Minutes:

RESOLVED to exclude the public for the following items of business on the grounds that there would be disclosure to them of exempt information under category 3 of The Local Authorities (Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007).

7.

Equity Protection Strategy

To consider the report from Aon.

Minutes:

Aon presented a report regarding Equity protection.  The Committee considered the review of economic activity and noted that it was considered that activity would moderate over the medium-term.  A range of risks including trade tariffs, economic and political conflicts would impact on economic activity.

 

It was noted that equity markets were strong during 2019-20 but earnings growth had been weak.  The impact of such things as the Coronavirus would add to the near-term risk.  It was considered that equities would not increase much more as global markets were at the end of an economic cycle.

 

The Committee considered the various equity protection options and protection levels including the amount of the fund which could be protected.

The appropriate level of protection was dependent on the Committee’s risk tolerance.  In response to questions, Aon advised that the protection was focussed on the next actuarial valuation in 2022.

 

It was moved and duly seconded to continue the equity protection due to come to an end in March 2020 for a further three years and the level and type of protection.  The Committee decided to retain an additional 2% of loss, which enables assets to attain a greater return, as it was felt it was complimentary to the existing levels of protection already in place.

 

RESOLVED

Reason for decision

that equity protection due to cease in March 2020 continues as follows:

at a level of £55m at a 95% - 75% put spread collar structure and protect 1/3 for each of 1, 2 and 3 years.

To ensure the Equity protection

strategy continues to protect the

Fund against market downturns.