URGENT: Consultation on treatment of Russian securities in Invesco equity and fixed income indexes

IMPORTANT NOTE: This consultation will end on Monday, March 7, 2022. Please submit your responses to IndexSupport@invesco.com as soon as possible so we can be sure to consider all stakeholder feedback before announcing official index treatment.

Invesco Indexing is closely monitoring the fast-moving and fluid events in Ukraine, the response to these events - including sanctions - by governments in the US and abroad, as well as the trading and settlement availability for Russian securities. At this time, we are reaching out to interested market participants and inviting them to share their views through a consultation process. Specifically, we would like market participants to provide feedback on the preferred treatment of Russian equity and fixed income securities at the time of an index update and as index constituents on an ongoing basis. Respondents are encouraged to comment on the topics that matter most to them, which may include, but are not limited to, the following questions:

• Should the indexes maintain all current holdings of Russian equity and fixed income securities regardless of sanctions or trading availability?
• Should the indexes delete only Russian equity and fixed income securities affected by sanctions and for which sales are allowed?
• If Russian securities are to remain in the index, how should they be treated? For instance, in equity indexes, shares outstanding, free float adjustment, and size (large/mid/small) could all be locked in place.  For fixed income indexes, security weights could be allowed to change with corporate actions, like calls and maturities, and market prices.
• Should the indexes delete all Russian equity and fixed income securities, regardless of their sanction status or their trading availability?
• If securities are to be deleted from affected indexes, what is the preferred timing?

For any questions, please reach out to a member of the client engagement team at IndexSupport@invesco.com.