2014-035 - Approving the City's Statment of Investment Policy

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CITY OF SANTA ANA STATEMENT OF INVESTMENT POLICY JULY 2014 -2015 Page 2 ensure preservation of capital in the overall portfolio. The objective will be to mitigate credit risk and interest rate risk. A. Credit Risk Credit Risk is the risk of loss due to the failure of the security issuer or backer. Credit risk may be mitigated by: Limiting investments to the safest types of securities; Pre - qualifying the financial institutions, broker /dealers, intermediaries, and advisors with which the City will do business; and Diversifying the investment portfolio so that potential losses on individual securities will be minimized. B. Interest Rate Risk Interest rate risk is the risk that the market value of securities in the portfolio will fall due to changes in general interest rates. Interest rate risk may be mitigated by: Structuring the Fund so that securities mature to meet cash requirements for ongoing operations, thereby avoiding the need to sell securities on the open market prior to maturity, and By investing operating funds primarily in shorter -term securities. The cash flow is updated on a daily basis and will be considered prior to the investment of securities, which will reduce the necessity to sell investments for liquidity purposes. 2. LIQUIDITY - The investment portfolio shall remain sufficiently liquid to meet all operating requirements that may be reasonably anticipated. This is accomplished by structuring the portfolio so that securities mature concurrent with cash needs to meet anticipated demands (static liquidity). Furthermore, since all possible cash demands cannot be anticipated, the portfolio should consist largely of securities with active secondary or resale markets (dynamic liquidity). 3. YIELD - The City's Fund shall be designed with the objective of attaining a market - average rate of return throughout budgetary and economic cycles flaking into account the investment risk constraints and liquidity needs. Return on Investment is of least importance compared to the safety and liquidity objectives described above. The core of investments are limited to relatively low risk securities in anticipation of earning a fair return relative to the risk being assumed. Securities shall not be sold prior to maturity with the following exceptions: 1) a declining credit security could be sold early to minimize loss of principal; 2) a security swap would improve the quality, yield, or target duration in the