UK - Cardiff County Council has issued a tender for a new provider of actuarial services for the Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan local authority pension scheme.

The five-year contract will require the successful applicant to provide a range of duties for the £904m (€1.1bn) local government pension scheme (LGPS), including bulk transfers, closure valuations and interim valuations.

In addition, the tender notice  - valuing the contract at £240,000 - states the actuarial consultant will be expected to undertake the triennial valuation of the scheme - last conducted on March 31 2007 - as well as the production of FRS17 accounting figures, the calculation of indemnity bonds and other "ad-hoc" services.

The pension fund's current actuarial provider is Hewitt, Bacon and Woodrow, and figures from the scheme's latest annual report for 2006/07 show at its last triennial valuation in 2004 the pension fund had a deficit of £321.6m, suggesting it could only cover 63% of pensioner liabilities.

Although the results of the 2007 valuation have not been published, the pension fund's 2006/07 report said "despite rising investment returns the total funding level (ie the deficit) has not improved over time due to the increase in liabilities".

The pension fund currently has a target asset allocation of 75% equities and 25% bonds - according to the annual report - however in May Cardiff started a search for a specialist currency manager to run a pooled account. (See earlier IPE article: Cardiff seeks specialist currency manager)

The deadline for applications to provide the actuarial services is August 26 2008, at which point the contract will to be awarded to the most economically advantageous tender.

If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Nyree Stewart on + 44 (0)20 7261 4618 or email nyree.stewart@ipe.com

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