Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals loses nearly 10 per cent of charitable funds on stock market

The committee expressed concern that brokers Rensburg Shepherd had not moved to make the share portfolio less risky in times of greater volatility.

The minutes said: “[Trust director of finance] David Wragg explained that we rely on Rensburg Shepherd to protect our assets and they haven’t changed the risk of our portfolio at a time of uncertainty. The committee agreed that given the current financial situation it was too late to rectify this but this should be taken into account when we go out to tender.”

The document added: “The committee felt generally that there is still a very rocky period ahead in economic times and the markets are very fragile. Bill Langley [non executive director] asked how proactive Rensburg Shepherd were in asking us but DW explained that they are using the risk mix decided on at the
time of their appointment and even if we asked for more input would the committee have the confidence to make the decisions.

“DW explained that past experience had shown that where an in-house investment committee was in place the investment was much more volatile.”