Pension Protection Fund: Our statement on the Russian invasion of Ukraine

8 March 2022

We’re deeply saddened by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Our thoughts are first and foremost with the Ukrainian people as this crisis unfolds.

To reassure our members and levy payers, our total investment exposure to Russia is negligible. As a result, we don’t expect any material financial impact on the fund from our investments in the region.

Before the war against Ukraine began, we had already managed down our exposure to Russia in light of the growing instability and risks in the region. Our remaining net exposure is close to zero – less than 0.01 per cent of the total value of the fund. While this is only a tiny fraction of our total investments, as a responsible investor, we are actively engaging with our relevant asset managers with a view to closing our outstanding holdings as soon as we are practically able to. There is currently no liquidity in Russian assets, so it’s impossible to do anything until markets open up.

While we remain financially robust and resilient, we recognise the recent volatility in financial markets could have wider impacts, including potentially on some of the defined benefit schemes we protect. We’ll continue to monitor developments closely and will not hesitate to take any necessary steps to protect the fund for our members and levy payers.

We stand firmly behind the efforts of the UK Government and others to bring peace to Ukraine. More practically, as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) work, we are also helping enable our employees who voluntarily want to support those affected by this and other wars through charitable organisations providing humanitarian assistance.

Source: Pension Protection Fund