‘We invest the money we get from our customers in various assets, including the stock market’s ones. We always have our assets re-assessed at the end of the year, so it will be clear by then just how much we have been affected by the present crisis. A portion of the investments has been distributed through bank deposits and real estate, so we hope this money will make up for the possible losses on the stock market,’ UMMC Perspektiva Nongovernmental Retirement Fund’s Deputy CEO Sergey Khalatov said to an UrBC reporter.

Russian nongovernmental retirement funds actually tend to see securities as their main asset, so the downfall of Russian issuers’ share prices might totally devaluate the Russian citizens’ pension accruals.

‘Our money gets invested with the help of professional market players’ management companies. These companies find themselves in an even more challenging situation because they bear the greatest responsibility for their decision-making. I don’t think the number of nongovernmental retirement funds will go down as a result of the financial crisis,’ Khalatov said.

‘Nearly all the management companies that cooperate with the pension funds must, according to the law, produce their annual financial reports to the funds. So these companies will actually find it hard to stay on the market. Unless some serious steps are taken, lots of management companies will be in trouble,’ he added.