Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Deborah Moseley  Senior Democratic Services Officer

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

General

1(1)

Apologies

Minutes:

None.

1(2)

Members’ Disclosures of Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests

Members are required to register their disclosable pecuniary interests within 28 days of their election or appointment to the Council. A member attending a meeting where a matter arises in which s/he has a disclosable pecuniary interest must (unless s/he has a dispensation):

 

        Declare the interest if s/he has not already registered it

        Not participate in any discussion or vote

        Must leave the meeting room until the matter has been dealt with

        Give written notice of any unregistered interest to the Monitoring Officer within 28 days of the meeting

 

Non-pecuniary interests must still be declared in accordance with the Code of Conduct. These should be declared at the commencement of the meeting.

Minutes:

None.

1(3)

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 290 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed as a true and accurate record. There were no matters arising.

2.

Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 91 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Chris Norton, Strategy and Commissioning Manager (Treasury, Pension, Audit & Risk), presented this report which provided an updated forward plan for the Pension Fund Investment Sub Committee, rolled forward to cover the year ahead.  The content of the plan was being gradually improved and the plan was now a more sophisticated document that included a schedule of fund manager presentations and policy reviews. 

 

Members commented that they would welcome the inclusion of a training programme and it was agreed that in future the plan would include training dates and that a broad invite to attend training sessions would continue to be extended to Members sitting on Staff and Pensions Committee and the Local Pension Board.

 

Karen Shackleton commented that the plan suggested an item on Environmental, Social and Governance / Responsible Investment / Climate Risk in June 2021 and it would be likely that a consultation on the Task Force for Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) would be taking place around that time.  Ms Shackleton felt that it would be helpful to note this against the item and consider a review of how existing managers were aligned to the TCFD recommendations in advance of or alongside the consultation.

 

Resolved

That the Pension Fund Investment Sub-Committee noted the report.

3.

Risk Monitoring pdf icon PDF 248 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Victoria Moffett, Lead Commissioner Pensions and Investments presented this report which provided an update on the risks to the Fund and actions taken to manage them. It covered both the general risk register and the

COVID-19 risk register with a focus on changes, developments, and management actions.  The report included a summary of the two risk registers and comparison of how risks had changed since the original assessments in February and March.

 

Councillor Bill Gifford sought clarity on the assertion that cyber crime had not materially affected the fund and was advised that whilst members of the team had received some phishing emails, and on the limited occasions links had been clicked on, Warwickshire County Council’s ICT Team had stepped in and no breaches had occurred as a result.

 

Reflecting on the RAG rating system applied to the register, Sub-Committee members were pleased to see some significant (red) risks had reduced to a moderate level (orange) and felt that, in light of the pandemic, the assessment of risk was as expected. The Pensions Team were congratulated on their efforts to keep business as usual as far as possible and for reducing the effects of some of the challenges posed by the pandemic.

 

Resolved

That the Pension Fund Investment Sub-Committee noted the report.

4.

Reports Containing Exempt or Confidential Information

To consider passing the following resolution:

 

‘That members of the public be excluded from the meeting for the items mentioned below on the grounds that their presence would involve the disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of Part 1 of the Local Government Act 1972’.

Minutes:

Resolved

That members of the public be excluded from the meeting for the items mentioned below on the grounds that their presence would involve the disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of Part 1 of the Local Government Act 1972.

5.

General Activity Update

Minutes:

Resolved

1.     That the Pension Fund Investment Sub-Committee noted the report;

2.     That the Pension Fund Investment Sub-Committee agreed the Competition and Markets Authority’s wording that the Fund has investment consultant objectives in place (Appendix 2 to the report); and

3.     That the Pension Fund Investment Sub-Committee formally approved the updated Scheme of Delegation (Appendix 3 to the report)

6.

Investment and Fund Performance

Minutes:

Resolved

1.     That the Pension Fund Investment Sub-Committee noted the presentations.

2.     That the Pension Fund Investment Sub-Committee continued to provisionally allocate 10% of the Fund’s portfolio to Border to Coast Pension Partnership’s (“BCPP”) Multi-Asset Credit Fund (“MAC”).

3.     That the Pension Fund Investment Sub-Committee approved the recommendation to allocate 2.5% of the Fund’s portfolio to the PIMCO Diversified Income Fund (“DIF”), in January 2021 in advance of the transition to BCPP’s MAC (earliest likely transition is July 2021).

4.     That the Pension Fund Investment Sub-Committee delegated authority to authorise the transition of 2.5% of assets to the PIMCO DIF to the Strategic Director for Resources.

7.

LGPS Pooling

Minutes:

Resolved

1.     That the Pension Fund Investment Sub-committee noted the report.

2.     That the Pension Fund Investment Sub-committee noted the performance issues with the Global Equity Alpha Fund.

8.

Border to Coast Presentation

Minutes:

Resolved

That the Pension Fund Investment Sub-Committee noted the presentation.

9.

Custodian Presentation - Bank of New York Mellon

Minutes:

Resolved

That the Pension Fund Investment Sub-Committee noted the presentation.

10.

Exempt Minutes of the Previous Meeting

Minutes:

The exempt minutes of the previous meeting were agreed as a true and accurate record. There were no matters arising.