A pension fund entrusted with the savings of ten million Britons may have helped fuel the global cost of living crisis by investing more than half-a-billion pounds in financial products, a new investigation has found.
The findings are part of a Europe-wide probe into pension funds’ investments in commodity derivatives. Analysis of European pension funds by Lighthouse Reports shows that more than €30bn is tied up in these funds, which are used to bet on the price of raw materials like food and fuel.
Most of the top UK pension funds surveyed – including those of BP, HSBC and Barclays – do not invest in commodity derivatives. But the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) and the National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) together hold more than £2bn in the products.
