Investment strategy statement (ISS)

The Local Government Pension Scheme (Management and Investment of Funds) Regulations 2016 require the administering authority to have in place an investment strategy statement (ISS).

Previous versions can be found in the archive.

The ISS was approved by the Pensions Committee in March 2024, following consultation with the Fund’s Investment Adviser.

Authorities are required to prepare and maintain an ISS which documents how the investment strategy for the Fund is determined and implemented. The ISS is required to cover a number of areas, specifically:

  • the requirement to invest money across a wide range of investments
     
  • an assessment of the suitability of particular investments and investment types
     
  • the maximum percentage authorities deem should be allocated to different asset classes or types of investment, although limits on allocations to any asset class are not prescribed as is currently the case under the 2009 Regulations
     
  • the authority’s attitude to risk, including the measurement and management of risk
     
  • the authority’s approach to investment pooling
     
  • the authority’s policy on social, environmental and corporate governance considerations
     
  • the authority’s policy with regard to stewardship of assets, including the exercise of voting rights

Under Regulation 7(6) and 7(7), the statements had to be published by 1 April 2017 and then kept under review and revised from time to time, at least every three years.

Under Regulation 7(5), the authority must consult such persons as it considers appropriate as to the proposed contents of its investment strategy. In the formulation of the ISS, we consulted with interested parties, including advisors, employers, and the Local Pensions Board.

Currency Hedging Policy

View Currency Hedging Policy

Staffordshire Pension Fund ("the Fund") invests a large proportion of the Fund in non-Sterling (£) denominated assets. When the value of Sterling changes in the foreign exchange markets versus other currencies (i.e. the US Dollar $), this leads to volatility in the price of the assets the Fund owns and a subsequent financial gain or loss.

Forecasting movements in currency markets is extremely challenging, therefore, to compensate for this uncertainty some investors use currency hedging as a form of insurance, to protect against currency volatility.

Pension Fund Officers have worked with the Fund’s investment consultants, Hymans Robertson, in developing this policy. The intention of the policy is to set out the Fund’s views on currency hedging in the major asset classes it invests in, in a concise format, to help guide future decision making.

 

Further information

If you have any comments or queries please email:

The 2016 investment regulations can be accessed on the government's legislation website.