We want to be clear that, as trustee, we can
only make investment decisions on financial
best interest grounds. Our in-house
investment team at USS Investment
Management (USSIM) make value-based
decisions every day, across financial markets,
in seeking to achieve the investment returns
the scheme needs to pay members' benefits.
The decisions that have been reported on this
week were made on that basis, and that basis
alone.
Some commentators have stated, or implied,
that we have excluded Israel from our
investment portfolio. We have not. It is also
wrong to state, or imply, that our decisions
were made for anything other than financial
reasons. They were not made in response to
the range of views USS members may have,
and nor were they any form of comment on
events other than the financial circumstances.