Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of the UK’s official reserve assets carries (a) sovereign, (b) financial institution and (c) other counterparty credit exposure.

The government does not comment on market movements. Assets in the Exchange Equalisation Account (EEA) are held to meet the EEA’s core policy objectives as defined in the EEA Act 1979. All EEA investment decisions, including the currency and asset composition of the Account, are made using the following investment principles:

Investment Principle 1 (readiness) – The EEA must be ready to meet its policy objectives at all times, at an acceptable cost and high degree of certainty.

Investment Principle 2 (risk tolerance) – The EEA must not take on risk that compromises the ability to meet Principle 1 or that could unduly influence fiscal metrics.

Investment Principle 3 (return) – Subject to meeting Principles 1 and 2, the EEA should seek to optimise risk-adjusted return

Foreign exchange risk is one of the primary market risks faced by the EEA and so is considered by HMT and the Bank of England when making decisions assessing the EEA’s risk tolerance under Investment Principle 2. A portion of EEA assets are also hedged against foreign exchange and interest rate changes.

To manage credit risk, the Bank maintains a framework of issuer credit limits. A similar framework applies to counterparty risk.

The EEA has held 9.98 million ounces of gold on a permanent basis since March 2002 and it remains an important component of the diversified portfolio.

The Bank of England publishes a monthly statistical release setting out the EEA’s holdings split by broad asset class on the third working day at: UK International Reserves - August 2026. In addition, each quarter, one month in arrears, data on the currency breakdown of the UK’s reserves is published by the Bank of England at: Bank of England | Database.