Hawai'i's largest pension fund has learned its exposure to the subprime mortgage crisis is limited to about 2.45 percent of its assets, a level that it says is small and in line with similarly sized public plans.

Consultants to the state's $11 billion-plus Employees' Retirement System say the pension plan has varying degrees of exposure amounting to a small portion of overall assets. That amounts to about $270 million of assets with varying degrees of exposure to the crisis.

"We do have some exposure, but it's very small," said Rod June, chief investment officer of the pension plan that administers retirement funds and benefits for state and county workers.

"I think our exposure is in line with most public pension funds."

The ERS asked Pension Consulting Alliance Inc. to look at how much of its assets might be exposed to the crisis, which has roiled financial markets. Some higher-risk borrowers have been unable to keep up with adjustable-rate mortgage payments, while financial companies that bought mortgage-backed securities and other instruments tied to the mortgages have had difficulty.

Most public pension plans nationally haven't reported big problems because of the crisis, though a Florida money-market fund did face problems when it disclosed in December that it held more than $700 million of defaulted debt.

June said the report from Pension Consulting was in line with an earlier assessment he had done of the ERS' exposure and showed the exposure wasn't something to become overly concerned about.

The ERS places its money with professional managers who invest in a variety of investments ranging from stocks and bonds to venture capital funds. June said Pension Consulting found only 0.5 percent of ERS assets had direct exposure, such as having investments with a fixed-income fund that holds mortgage-backed securities.

The remainder of the exposure was either indirect or involved downgraded securities.

"Fortunately for us we are a diversified fund and we can ride out some of the volatility in the market," June said.

"Our portfolio is still over $11 billion."