March 2020

25Mar

Swedish Pension AP1 Divests From Fossil Fuels

Swedish pension fund AP1 said it will no longer invest in fossil fuel companies. The SEK365.8 billion ($35.8 billion) fund said the transition to a low-carbon economy represents a significant amount of uncertainty for companies involved in coal, oil, and natural gas activities and that “continued investments related to these activities can increase the financial risk exposure of the fund.” The fund said the move is a result of its work to identify and analyze climate-related financial risks in...

March 25, 2020
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13Mar

​Swedish Pensions Agency sees need for new pension savings scheme

The Swedish Pensions Agency (Pensionsmyndigheten) says it sees a need for a new type of private pension savings scheme, as some sections of the population should be putting more money away for retirement. In a report investigating this proposal, the authority said while the financial need for increased savings seemed to be low for most people in Sweden, there were nevertheless groups that needed to save more for their pensions. The agency said in a statement: “A private pension savings...

March 13, 2020
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January 2019

24Jan

Another Swedish Pension Fund Makes Huge ESG-Focused Divestment

Selling of nukes, tobacco, coal and oil sands holdings follows new law, plus actions of sister fund. Closely following its sister fund, in accordance with new legislation, Swedish pension fund AP1 has divested from several environmentally harmful categories. The $1 billion AP1, one of four pension funds that manage the retirement assets of the nation, said it has removed allocations to nuclear weapons, tobacco, coal, and oil sand companies from its investment portfolio “since the beginning of the year.”...

January 24, 2019
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October 2018

22Oct

Who Feels the Nudge? Knowledge, Self-Awareness and Retirement Savings Decisions

By Anders Anderson (Swedish House of Finance) & David T. Robinson (Fuqua School of Business, Duke University; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)) Using a financial literacy survey of Swedish pension investors matched to actual retirement savings decisions, we argue that respondents can be broken into three groups: those who are financially literate, those who mistakenly believe they are financially literate, and those who know that they are not. We examine how these groups respond differently to informational nudges encouraging...

October 22, 2018
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03Oct

Swedish national pension fund to measure sustainability through Arabesque S-Ray

Arabesque today announced an agreement to provide the Swedish national pension fund Första AP-fonden (AP1) with ESG data through its proprietary technology Arabesque S-Ray®. As part of the new partnership, AP1 and Arabesque will also collaborate on developing a unique score for S-Ray® that quantifies the performance of companies based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP Score). Arabesque S-Ray® is an algorithm-based tool that analyses the sustainability performance of approximately 7,000 of the world’s largest listed...

October 3, 2018
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July 2017

07Jul

Sweden Opens $155 Billion in Pension Cash to Greater Risks

Sweden’s $155 billion AP pension system was given the go ahead to cut its bond holdings and invest more in private equity in a bid to boost returns and safeguard retirement funds. The new rules for AP1, AP2, AP3 and AP4 will require the funds to hold 20 percent of their assets in the safest bonds, down from 30 percent, the Finance Ministry said in a statement Friday. The proposal also does away with a 5 percent limit for non-listed...

July 7, 2017
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June 2017

05Jun

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund cuts its stake in oil and gas

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund cut its stake in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 7.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 27,867 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 2,278 shares during the period. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in EQT were worth $1,703,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Several other large investors have also...

June 5, 2017
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