Agenda item

(a)  The Committee considered and noted the update.

(b)  The Committee agreed that completion and submission of any future applications to opt up to professional client status in respect of MiFID II is delegated to the Head of Clwyd Pension Fund.

Mr Latham introduced the Governance Update report highlighting it was usually for note but had a recommendation regarding MiFID II included in this report. Given the new members of the Committee, he talked through the report starting with the business plan update and said that the Fund were planning induction training for the new members on cyber risk and business continuity.

The Fund had been waiting for TPR new single code to be issued but this had been delayed even further.

Mrs McWilliam noted the following key points in relation to the Pension Board which she chairs:

-       Phil Pumford was reappointed as Scheme Member Representative for the joint trade unions (as outlined in paragraph 1.02).  The Chief Executive formally agreed this in line with the constitution and Mrs McWilliam noted how grateful she was for Mr Pumford’s willingness to stand for a further term.

-       The Pension Board meeting from 8 June included discussions on the proposed communication strategy, cyber security resilience and the actuarial valuation.  They had discussed the website usage as the Board asked to see the number of people who viewed the website in Welsh language. It was noted that around 60 people were viewing the website in Welsh (out of thousands of people viewing it in English) so further work would be done in highlighting the option of the Welsh language version.  

-       The Board members were invited to complete a survey regarding the effectiveness of the Board’s governance arrangements.

Mr Latham explained the background to the recommendation relating to the opting up to professional status for MiFID II as outlined in paragraph 1.05. The Fund was classed as a retail client which limits certain investment services that consultants and fund managers provide unless they opt up to professional status.  To be treated as a professional client, they must evidence that they have the appropriate knowledge to be able to make decisions based on the information provided. The previous Chief Executive (of Flintshire County Council) had responsibility for signing the opt up submissions but it was proposed that this should be now delegated to Mr Latham as Head of the Clwyd Pension Fund.  The approved minutes of this meeting would be part of the submission to opt-up shared with consultants and fund managers.

As outlined in paragraph 1.06, Mr Latham summarised the developments relating to whether the LGPS is considered as Sharia compliant or not. He confirmed that legal opinion was being sought by the LGPS Scheme Advisory Board.

Mr Latham sat on the local authority committee of the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (“PLSA”) and was involved in drafting the report as highlighted in paragraph 1.08. The report considers the challenges and opportunities in the LGPS.

Key areas regarding the policy, strategy implementation and monitoring were in paragraph 1.09 and included future training events for the Committee members to note and attend.

The Fund records and reports on any breaches of the law to each Committee. The new breaches added since the last Committee were addressed in paragraph 1.10 on page 91.

Delegated responsibilities was a standard item from paragraph 1.11 and appendix 7 included the updated Committee Delegations of Functions to Officers Schedule regarding the recommendation relating to MiFID II.

RESOLVED:

(a)  The Committee considered and noted the update.

(b)  The Committee agreed that completion and submission of any future applications to opt up to professional client status in respect of MiFID II is delegated to the Head of Clwyd Pension Fund.