Issue - meetings

To provide Committee Members with an update on implementation of Pooling Investments in Wales.

(a)  The Committee noted the report and discussed progress being made by the Wales Pension Partnership.

Mr Latham reminded the Committee that the Fund have transitioned 4% of the total Fund assets from global equities to the pool, which equates to over c£75m. As a result, the Fund will make a saving of £152k per year from Fund Manager fees on this mandate, which was the intention of pooling all along. The movement of assets resulted in transition costs of c£364k, however these costs will be paid back within 2 years and 5 months due to the annual savings.

Mr Latham said that there have been discussions about investing in private markets but it is only early days and he will provide further updates in due course.

Following the previous agenda item on responsible investment, WPP now has a draft policy which is going to all Welsh fund committees for consideration. The purpose of the policy is to set out the pool’s overarching enabling policy but is not intended to restrict any individual Fund.  This policy will be shared with the Committee alongside the responsible investment survey from Mr Buckland.

Regarding the governance of the WPP it was noted that the work plan is now in place.   The OWG and JGC members are due to attend a governance session which will include a number of areas on the work plan.  .

Mrs McWilliam said that she met with the host authority, Link Fund Solutions and other Board Chairs, in early April. At that session, the host authority highlighted that a lot of the past focus had been on the investment side of pooling as opposed to the governance side, mainly due to restricted resources.   However, Mrs McWilliam came away from the meeting feeling very positive. She added that it was useful that the host authority admitted that they need to focus more now on the governance side of pooling and feel they have caught up substantially and continue to make good progress. It was agreed at the meeting that the event would be repeated twice a year.

Mr Hibbert thanked the officers for raising the overall issue of governance at the JGC. He also asked whether the Fund are any closer to having an answer to his previous questions on the governance arrangements i.e. making a clear statement as to why scheme members are not represented on the JGC, in accordance with comply or explain principles. Mr Latham confirmed that he is not aware of any written answer to this yet, but he can raise it again.  Mr Hibbert expressed his concerns as this request was asked over 12 months ago, which meant that there must have been at least four meetings. Therefore, he wants this to remain an outstanding issue until it is resolved.

RESOLVED:

(a)  The Committee noted the report and discussed progress being made by the Wales Pension Partnership.