KAS BANK, the specialist securities services to UK institutional pension schemes, have partnered with asset manager, LGPS Central Limited, for cost transparency collection and reporting services.

LGPS Central Limited, one of eight pooling vehicles across England and Wales, is currently responsible for the management and stewardship of approximately £20bn of assets for nine midlands-based Local Government Pension Scheme funds.

The nine funds have approximately £45bn of investment assets collectively.

LGPS Central will be leveraging KAS BANK’s cost transparency solution and data analytical expertise to assist with collecting cost information across its range of investment mandates for both the “pooled assets” and those employed by the partner funds. An important area of focus will be the integrity and security of this cost data. 

KAS BANK will generate a cost report using its cost transparency dashboard, this will be accessible to the team at LGPS Central and partner funds.

The partnership will allow LGPS Central to further tighten its governance standards and facilitate thorough cost transparency on behalf of its Partner Fund investors.

KAS BANK is one of the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association’s (PLSA) education partners and is committed to raising awareness across the pensions industry of the benefits cost transparency provides in establishing good governance and member outcomes. 

Mike Weston, Chief Executive at LGPS Central Limited, commented: “We are committed to being as transparent as possible about investment costs with our clients. We’re delighted to be working with KAS BANK and are looking forward to shining even more light on costs - one of the key benefits of the pooling process.”

Pat Sharman, Managing Director for the UK branch of KAS BANK, commented: “We are delighted to be partnering with LGPS Central on cost transparency data collection and reporting, particularly as we continue to see demand across the industry. We support their focus on transparency and are best placed to support LGPS Central given our experience in both Dutch and UK markets.

“We launched our cost transparency solution to UK pension funds in 2017 and now partner with several major UK pension schemes in meeting their requirements. We continue to enhance our platform to meet the needs of pension schemes, having recently launched our DC cost transparency solution. This ensures DC schemes are supported on their investment costs and conduct informed value for money assessments”.