April 2022

Swedish regulator to screen funds for ‘green painting’

Sweden's financial regulator said it will start reviewing funds to enforce new sustainable regulations and to prevent "green painting." The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, or Finansinspektionen, said it will review "whether the information provided about the funds that are classified as most sustainable meets the strict requirements" of sustainable finance disclosure regulation rules implemented in March 2021. In a notice on its website Tuesday, FI said that as demand for green and sustainable funds increases rapidly, "this entails the risk of...

February 2022

Swedish Centre-Left Govt Proposes Raising Pensions in $1 Billion Reform

Sweden's centre-left government said on Monday it would propose raising pensions for the elderly with the lowest incomes in a reform that will cost 9.4 billion crowns ($1.00 billion) in 2023. The Social Democrat minority government agreed with the Green and the Left parties to raise pensions by up to 1,000 crowns tax free per month for the half a million pensioners with the lowest incomes, the parties told a joint news conference. "Nearly every other pensioner is covered by the...

September 2021

Sweden. AP2 continues sustainability journey with stellar returns and costs

Swedish buffer fund, AP2, has incorporated Paris-aligned rules into its benchmark construction for global and emerging market equities. This year it turns its attention to Swedish and Chinese equities. The moves come on the back of the best-ever half year return for the SEK421.2 billion fund and its lowest ever costs. AP2 is one of the originals, a long-time ESG investor that has sustainability at its core. It started to divest from fossil fuel exposed companies in 2014 with a rationale...

August 2021

Sweden’s biggest pension manager cuts stocks on inflation concern

The specter of accelerating inflation is prompting the biggest pension manager in Sweden to cut its holdings of stocks and bonds. Read also Ireland. Pensions gap widens as pandemic deepens the divide Alecta, which manages $130 billion, is instead boosting exposure to alternative assets such as infrastructure projects and residential housing in an effort to preserve returns. Read also New Zealand. Super-sharers: How small contributions can push back against inequality "Longer term we may see rising inflation and that is one of the...

March 2021

Sweden wants to tax pensioners in Portugal

Swedish Parliament is set to vote on unilaterally ending an agreement with Portugal to not tax citizens receiving their pensioners here Following in the footsteps of Finland in 2018, Stockholm now also wants to see its expat pensioners in Portugal taxed as they would be in their home countries. Portugal recently changed its non-habitual resident regime to enforce a blanket ten percent tax on foreign pensions, but Sweden argues this is inadequate and not in accordance with an agreement signed with...

November 2020

Swedish pension giant and LGIM launch sustainable EM equity fund

Swedish pension fund AP1 and LGIM have collaborated to launch a new EM equity fund. The L&G Emerging Market Equity Future Core fund will link the allocation of capital to clear sustainability requirements for companies it will invest in. The rationale behind the launch is to meet institutional investors’ need for index-linked funds with an extended sustainability profile. According to AP1, the need for this kind of product has increased as more investors choose passive or index-linked management models....

Sweden’s Kåpan ups green bond weighting, expands fossils strategy

Swedish government employees’ pension fund Kåpan Pensioner announced a series of environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives it has taken so far this year to up its game in sustainable investment, and said it plans to extend the scope of its fossil-fuel strategy. The SEK100bn (€9.8bn) fund also said it was increasing its mandate for green bonds, with its holdings of the environmental debt having grown in 2020, and had taken action to cut sustainability risk in its global...

September 2020

One of Sweden’s Biggest Investors Starts ESG Pressure Campaign

Alecta, a Swedish pension fund with about $110 billion under management, wants to take active investing to a new level to force the companies it owns to be more ethical. Carina Silberg, who runs a newly merged corporate governance and sustainability unit at Alecta, says her team is bringing in reams of data to figure out exactly what portfolio companies are doing when it comes to environmental, social and governance standards. If “large gaps” are identified, “targeted action” follows, she...

May 2020

Swedish pension giant joins risk transfer market

Alecta, a Swedish pension fund manager, has announced it will be working alongside Dutch healthcare pension fund PGGM in the risk transfer market, taking 30% of deals PGGM invests in. PGGM is the largest single investor in significant risk transfer deals, growing a €5bn book which references €70bn of portfolios, and advocating to regulators and others for the benefits of the market.It is one of the only pension funds regularly active as a direct investor in... Read More @Global Capital

Swedish pension giant joins risk transfer market

Alecta, a Swedish pension fund manager, has announced it will be working alongside Dutch healthcare pension fund PGGM in the risk transfer market, taking 30% of deals PGGM invests in. PGGM is the largest single investor in significant risk transfer deals, growing a €5bn book which references €70bn of portfolios, and advocating to regulators and others for the benefits of the market.It is one of the only pension funds regularly active as a direct investor in... Read More @Global Capital