Mutual Fund Manager Vanguard Works To Further Cut Russia Exposure

Vanguard Group on Monday said it has moved swiftly to implement international sanctions imposed against Russian banks, entities and individuals in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, and is working to further reduce its exposure to Russia and exit positions across its index funds.

In a statement sent by a representative, the top mutual fund manager also said it is "in dialogue with our external active managers regarding the steps they are taking to comply with sanctions and reduce Russian exposure."

Vanguard had said on Friday it would not restrict the investment decisions of its active fund managers.

Rival fund companies have taken other steps. BlackRock Inc said on Thursday that it suspended the purchase of all Russian securities in its active and index funds.

Passive index funds account for the majority of Vanguard's roughly $8.1 trillion under management, but $1.7 trillion of that is in actively managed funds, with $767 billion run by external managers such as Wellington Management of Boston. Total exposure to Russia accounts for less than 0.01% of client assets, Vanguard said.

Major index providers, including MSCI and FTSE Russell, have been removing Russian equities and debt as deepening sanctions and public pressure isolate the country's economy from Western investment and trading partners. Russia has called its actions in Ukraine a "special operation."

Morningstar Inc on Monday said it would reclassify the Russian equity market from "emerging market" status to "unclassified" as of March 18, thus removing all Russian equities from certain Morningstar indexes.

Morningstar said it would make similar changes to remove certain Russian securities from fixed-income indexes. Morningstar said it was acting because of western sanctions "and deteriorating investability."