News - Fondtorgsnämnden

The Swedish Fund Selection Agency thanks the industry for comments shared on the draft of the fund agreement

2023-05-25

The Swedish Fund Selection Agency (FTN) thanks fund management companies and their advisers, interest groups and academia for their questions and comments on the Agency's draft of the fund agreement. The work of analyzing the comments received has been initiated. The Swedish Fund Selection Agency will provide information when responses to questions of public interest are published on the website under Q&A.The draft of the fund agreement and appendices are available here.
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The Swedish Fund Selection Agency participates at the Swedish Investment Fund Association's Fund Market Day, 22 May 2023

2023-05-22

Magnus Strömer and Nadine Viel Lamare spoke today, 22 May 2023, at the Swedish Investment Fund Association's Fund Market Day. This newsletter contains the content that was discussed, which has either not previously been published or was clarified during the presentation.The information below describes the ambitions and plans of the office of the Agency for the first procurement. The design of the procurement material will ultimately be made by the Board of the Swedish Fund Selection Agency.Adaptation of procurement documentsThe revision of the procurement documents for the first procurement is still ongoing. Following the evaluation of the comments received on the drafts of parts of the procurement documents, the Swedish Fund Selection Agency has for example made the following adjustments:

Clarifications and definitions will be included in the procurement documents for the first procurement.
The first procurement will have a longer period to submit tenders than what was stated in the draft examples of the procurement documents, given the timing of the notice of the procurement (planned June 15-22, 2023)
The Swedish Fund Selection Agency has reviewed the number of questions in the RFP.
The Swedish Fund Selection Agency has simplified questions where possible.
The Swedish Fund Selection Agency will ask questions in the RFP about the DORA Regulation (cybersecurity), in accordance with Union law.

The procurements include both mandatory requirements and award criteria. Controllability is an example of a mandatory requirement, where a minimum level defined in the procurement documents for each procurement must be achieved. Cost-effectiveness and high quality are award criteria, where the Swedish Fund Selection Agency will instead score the responses in the tenders based on these criteria.The interview phase of the procurement processThe interview phase of the procurement process is designed to verify and validate the tenders received. The interview phase cannot lead to a higher score of the procurement assessment, only lead to a deduction of points. If a tenderer is revised downwards during the interview phase and thus scores lower than a tenderer who has not been invited to interview, the latter will also be invited to interview.Objectivity and equal treatmentThe work of the Swedish Fund Selection Agency shall be characterised by objectivity and equal treatment, like all other Swedish government authorities. Objectivity is central to the evaluation of all tenders received. Equal answers should receive equal points, regardless of who in the organisation has reviewed the tender. The procurement material is designed not to discriminate against any actors.Corporate governanceThe Swedish Fund Selection Agency’s task is to procure high-quality funds – which, as stated in the Act on Procurement of Funds for the premium pension fund platform, among other things means that the fund assets must be managed in an exemplary manner in terms of sustainability through responsible investments and active ownership.Active ownership is practiced in different ways in different markets. Sweden has a well-functioning system with A and B shares and with nomination committees consisting of the largest shareholders. The qualitative evaluation of active ownership will consider the corporate governance model(s) prevailing in the markets in which the fund invests, while at the same time complying with the requirements of equal treatment and non-discrimination as all tenders will be evaluated in the same way.All procurements cannot be based on the Swedish corporate governance model, as this could be seen as discriminatory or unauthorised state aid. This does however not prevent the Swedish Fund Selection Agency from taking the Swedish corporate governance model into account in the procurement of Swedish equity funds, in the same way that the Swedish Fund Selection Agency accepts funds that are subject to a different supervisory authority than the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, Finansinspektionen.Review procedureAfter the evaluation phase, when the contract award decision is announced, there is a contractual standstill of 10 days. It is during this period that requests for review can be made, neither before nor after this period. Only tenderers can request review.Termination of fund agreementsAccording to the current working hypothesis, the Swedish Fund Selection Agency will, in close connection with the tender notification, terminate the fund agreements with the fund managers whose funds on the platform are subject to the same tender.The funds whose fund agreements have been terminated will remain on the platform and the duties that follows from the fund agreements will prevail until these funds have be unlisted from the platform. Savers will still be able to switch to or from these funds until the funds are replaced by the tendered funds.The transition to a fund platform with procured funds will be carefully prepared. The Swedish Fund Selection Agency will keep the fund managers, whose fund agreement have been terminated, continuously updated as new information exists. The saver will still have the opportunity to select another fund on the fund platform. The Swedish Pensions Agency will inform the savers affected.

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The Swedish Fund Selection Agency publishes a draft of the fund agreement and welcomes comments

2023-05-08

The Swedish Fund Selection Agency publishes a draft of the fund agreement that will be used in the upcoming procurements of funds for the premium pension fund platform, along with draft of Instructions to the fund agreement and appendices. Publishing of the draft of the fund agreement is part of the Agency’s market dialogue, which is intended to give the market the opportunity to prepare for the upcoming procurements of funds and to comment and give feedback on the material.Draft of the fund agreement including its three appendices and instructions for the fund agreement are available in Swedish and English. The draft will be adjusted to suit the requirements of the first procurement, which will be European Large Cap Equities (active). The Swedish Fund Selection Agency welcomes written comments and questions on the draft examples of the fund agreement, instructions and appendices. Comments should be sent to procurement@ftn.se by 12:00 CET on May 22nd 2023. In order for the Swedish Fund Selection Agency to be able to set better and more suitable terms and conditions, and prepare the market for the upcoming procurements, the Swedish Fund Selection Agency recommends all fund managers intending to participate in any procurement to read the draft fund agreement and other procurement material carefully, whether their participation is planned for the first procurement or for a fund category at a later stage.Please note that the terms and conditions of the final version of the fund agreement will not be subject to individual negations. Please note that all comments received will be archived in accordance with the Swedish principle of public access to documents, and could therefore be subject to disclosure upon request. Information that is deemed confidential according to the provisions of the Swedish Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act (2009:400) will not be disclosed.The draft examples of the Fund agreement, appendices and instructions are available here.
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The Swedish Fund Selection Agency publishes clarifications in response to comments received on the draft examples of parts of the tender documents

2023-05-05

The office of the Swedish Fund Selection Agency has reviewed comments on the draft examples of parts of the tender documents received between February 24th and March 17th 2023. The comments are important for the Swedish Fund Selection Agency's design of the tender documents that will be used in the procurement of funds for the Swedish premium pension fund platform. In response to the comments received, the Swedish Fund Selection Agency is publishing clarifications and answers to the questions that can be communicated before notice is made for the first procurement. All comments and questions received have been taken into account.Procurement of funds within the Swedish social insurance systemThe Swedish Fund Selection Agency is responsible for procuring funds for the Swedish premium pension fund platform, which is part of the Swedish social insurance system. Therefore, special requirements must be set in the procurements to protect the interests of the pension savers. The premium pension fund platform should provide funds of high quality, with the aim to create a safer and higher pension for the pension savers. To enable this, international best practice for procurement of funds among else will guide the Swedish Fund Selection Agency. The scope of the tender documents is in line with established industry standards.Legal requirementsTo procure funds within the framework of the Swedish social insurance system, the Swedish parliament has enacted two new laws, Act (2022:759) on the Swedish Fund Selection Agency and Act (2022:760) on the procurement of funds for the premium pension fund platform. The activities of the Swedish Fund Selection Agency are also regulated by Chapter 64 of the Social Insurance Code. Since the mandatory pension savings within the premium pension system shall contribute to securing the future livelihood of pensioners and thus reduce the financial risk for the state, the Swedish Fund Selection Agency sets higher requirements on fund managers and funds in the procurements than the requirements set under other regulations. In the procurements, the Swedish Fund Selection Agency must treat fund managers in an equal and non-discriminatory manner and observe the principles of transparency, proportionality and mutual recognition.The Swedish Fund Selection Agency has evaluated the comments received on the draft examples of the tender documents , including comments related to the processing of personal data. In its further work on the design of the documents, the Swedish Fund Selection Agency has taken these comments into account.Design of the tender documentsThe tender documents are intended to normally consist of a total of five documents: Procurement guidelines, Exclusion grounds and mandatory requirements, Request for proposal (RFP), Fund specification and a Fund agreement. Drafts examples of parts of the first four documents were part of the market dialogue conducted by the Swedish Fund Selection Agency in February and March 2023. However, which exact documents the tender documents will ultimately consist of can differ from procurement to procurement as the tender documents has to be adapted to each individual procurement.The comments received from the industry have shown the need to clarify the content of the tender documents . For example, when notice is made for the first procurement, the tender documents will include an updated list of definitions and, where appropriate, reference to international standards. The questions in the tender documents will be clear and fully explained. How each award criterion will be evaluated will be clarified in the tender documents .The number and category of funds to be procured in a particular procurement, the requirements applicable to the category, the current assets under management under the category and possible requirements of an understanding of how corporate governance is conducted in the markets covered by the procurement will be clearly stated in the tender documents for each individual procurement.FeesThe fee discount model that previously existed for the funds on the premium pension fund platform will be removed, and replaced with procured fees. The Swedish Fund Selection Agency has considered the comments regarding the possibility of adjusting the fee. The purpose of such a procedure is to safeguard the interests of savers. The process will be described in the tender documents and will follow the principles of Union law on equal treatment and more.Information provided by the fund manager in the tenderThe Swedish Fund Selection Agency’s will review and evaluate the tenders received. The interviews aim to validate the information submitted in the tenders and cannot lead to higher scores on the award criteria.In accordance with the Swedish principle of public access to official documents, documents received by an authority are public documents and may therefore be disclosed in their entirety if someone requests access to them. However, information protected by secrecy is not disclosed. It is therefore important that the fund manager indicates and motivates which information, if any, it considers should be covered by confidentiality when submitting the tender.
All comments and questions received have been considered. Answers to the questions that can be communicated before notice is made for the first procurement are published here.The Swedish Fund Selection Agency does not answer questions to actors individually. The information is made available to the industry on the Agency’s website.
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The Swedish Fund Selection Agency informs that the first fund category to be procured will be European Large Cap Equities (active)

2023-05-03

The Swedish Fund Selection Agency now informs the industry that the first category to be procured will be European Large Cap Equities (active). The information is shared to give the industry the opportunity to plan for the procurement as the period to submit tenders could be placed during the summer. The deadline to submit tenders for the procurement of which notice could be made later this spring, will be placed in late August, at the earliest. The exact date for the deadline will be communicated when notice is made for the procurement.
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