Western sanctions against the Russian economic and financial system are essentially wiping out the value of Russian shares.
Finnish Russian mutual funds have made losses of around EUR 600 million.
Russia has closed the Moscow stock exchange to prevent capital flight. According to Helsingin Sanomat, this means that about 80,000 Finns are trapped in mutual funds focused on Russia. These funds have suspended redemptions.
"When the Moscow Stock Exchange reopens one day, foreign investors are likely to be prevented from selling," Tuomas Virtala OP Bank was told about Yle.
Finnish pension funds abandoned Russia before its occupation of Ukraine. They began to withdraw money when Russia annexed Crimea.
According to Statistics Finland, Finnish companies, associations and households had committed EUR 1.2 billion in Russian securities last year.
However, this amount is only a fraction of Finnish invested capital. The value of assets managed by Finnish mutual funds was EUR 150 billion in January, according to the investment reporting service.
This week’s Yle News All Points North podcast discussed how Russia’s attack on Ukraine will affect Finland.
Source: The Nordic Page