Issue - meetings

10:50

The Scheme Advisory Board (SAB) which was set up under the Public Service Pensions Act 2013 to advise the Secretary of State and to act as a co-ordinator for best practice for the individual LGPS pension funds, has recently issued a number of key papers.  Two of these are consultation papers with a closing date of 29 September 2017.  The third is a template to enable LGPS Funds to seek to opt up to professional status under the new Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II). 

This report (PF9) invites the Committee to consider the implications of the three papers, and to agree responses to the two consultation documents and a way forward in response to MiFID II.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)      agree the consultation response on academies objectives as set down in Annex 1;

(b)      determine whether they wish to support the establishment of the Cross Pool Information Forum, and agree the consultation response at Annex 2 as amended where appropriate;

(c)      note the consequences of electing not to opt up to professional client status with all relevant institutions including Brunel Pension Partnership Ltd;

(d)      agree that the Pension Fund should seek to opt-up to elective professional client status with all relevant institutions and should commence this process as soon as possible;

(e)      acknowledge and agree, in applying to be treated as a professional client, to forgo the protections afforded to retail clients; and

(f)        delegate responsibility for completing and submitting all the applications, and whether this is on a full or single service basis, to the Service Manager (Pensions).

(a)  agreed;

(b)  not to support the establishment of the Cross Pool Information Forum for the reasons outlined in the report and to amend the consultation response at Annex 2 accordingly;

(c)  noted;

(d)  agreed;

(e)  acknowledged and agreed;

(f)    agreed.

The Scheme Advisory Board (SAB), which had been set up under the Public Service Pensions Act 2013 to advise the Secretary of State and to act as a co-ordinator for best practice for the individual LGPS pension funds, had recently issued a number of key papers.  Two of these were consultation papers with a closing date of 29 September 2017.  The third was a template to enable LGPS Funds to seek to opt up to professional status under the new Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II). 

The report (PF9) invited the Committee to consider the implications of the three papers, and to agree responses to the two consultation documents setting out a way forward in response to MiFID II.

RESOLVED:

(a)  to agree the consultation response on academies objectives, as set out in Annex 1;

(b)  not to support the establishment of the Cross Pool Information Forum for the reasons outlined in the report and to amend the consultation response at Annex 2 accordingly;

(c)  to note the consequence of electing not to opt up to professional client status with all relevant institutions including Brunel Pension Partnership Ltd;

(d)  to agree that the Pension Fund should seek to opt-up to elective professional client status with all relevant institutions and to commence this process as soon as possible;

(e)  to acknowledge and agree that in applying to be treated as a professional client, the Fund would forgo the protections afforded to retail clients; and

(f)    to delegate responsibility for completing and submitting all the applications, including consideration about whether this was on a full or single service basis to the Service Manager (Pensions).