Q & A

The pension committee, representing the political parties behind the pension system, has agreed that while the premium pension system should be retained, the government needs to take greater responsibility for the election of funds and the overall design of the premium pension system. The purpose is to ensure that the premium pension fund platform provides funds of high quality at as low a cost as possible. This is to strengthen opportunities for creating better pensions.

The procurements must always be carried out in the best interests of the pension saver and the pensioner. The Government and the pension group have decided that there should be an agency responsible for procuring funds and managing the fund platform in the premium pension system. The Swedish Fund Selection Agency’s mandate is to carry out this assignment on the basis of the principles laid down by law. The Swedish Fund Selection Agency is intended to be decoupled from political control; the Government should not have the opportunity to influence which individual funds are made eligible on the fund platform.

The Swedish Fund Selection Agency – a so-called board agency –is governed by a board. The Swedish Fund Selection Agency also has a host agency, namely, the Swedish Pensions Agency.

The Swedish Fund Selection Agency has a mandate to procure a wide selection of funds of high quality and different risk profiles for the premium pension fund platform, all in accordance with the Act concerning the procurement of funds for the premium pension fund platform. The Swedish Fund Selection Agency will enter into fund agreements in accordance with the same law.

The procurements must be carried out professionally and, on an independent basis. Furthermore, through these procurements, the Swedish Fund Selection Agency will ensure that pension savers have real freedom of choice. It will also ensure that fund managers and funds are assessed in a safe and cost-effective manner. The agency will also be responsible for the liquidation of the current fund platform and for how premium pension holdings are transferred to the procured fund platform.

The legislation governing the Swedish Fund Selection Agency’s overall tasks and principles is described in the Legislative Council's referral and was decided by the Swedish Riksdag during the spring of 2022. We will provide continuous updates with new and additional information.

The laws that regulates the Swedish Fund Selection Agency:

Lagen om upphandling av fonder till premiepensionens fondtorg, SFS 2022:760 ,  External link, opens in new window. Lagen om Fondtorgsnämnden, SFS 2022:759  External link, opens in new window.and 64 kap. socialförsäkringsbalken External link, opens in new window..

The current fund platform is application-based, which means that fund managers apply to the Swedish Pensions Agency to be allowed to provide a fund on the fund platform. If the fund manager meets the requirements, the fund manager and the Swedish Pensions Agency will enter into a fund agreement and the fund will be made eligible on the fund platform.

Now, the fund platform will be changed so that the funds are instead procured in accordance with a special set of rules for procurement of funds, regulated by law and described in the Legal Council's referral. This means that different categories of funds are procured and that requirements are placed on both the fund manager and the fund. In addition to this, the funds will be evaluated. For example, requirements and award criterias regarding suitability, ability, quality, performance, durability, and fees can be set.

The funds that best meet the evaluation criteria set out in each procurement will be selected and may sign time-limited fund agreements with the Swedish Fund Selection Agency. The funds will be regularly reviewed and followed up.

This means that the Swedish Fund Selection Agency can benefit from the Swedish Pensions Agency's processing and administrative resources as well as its competence, while at the same time remaining independent in its decisionmaking.

The office of The Swedish Fund Selection Agency and its units perform the operational activities of The Swedish Fund Selection Agency. The board of The Swedish Fund Selection Agency decides on the guidelines and directives that the office follows in its work. The board makes all strategic decisions for The Swedish Fund Selection Agency.

The office will prepare decision-making documents that the board will decide on.

Read more about working at FTN here. The Swedish Fund Selection Agency do not accept expressions of interest from applicants but rather refer applicants to current advertisements on the Swedish Pensions Agency's website. External link, opens in new window.

It is estimated that between 30–35 people will work for the office of the Swedish Fund Selection Agency. Everyone who works with the Swedish Fund Selection Agency’s activities will be employed by the Swedish Pensions Agency and is part of the Swedish Pensions Agency's organization. The Swedish Pensions Agency will be the host agency, and will thus be responsible for processing and administrative services on behalf of the Board.

To ensure the equal treatment of all actors, the Swedish Fund Agency cannot enter into partnership with fund management organizations.

Yes. However, the aim is that a dialogue with the market, a thourough evaluation and equal treatment of all tenderers from start to finnish in the process will give transparency and create trust for both the award decision and the Swedish Fund Selection Agency.

The legislation does not entail a shift in the responsibility on the procured fund platform compared to the fund platform today. The saver will still bear the financial risk in the choices made on the fund platform.

On June 20, 2022, the legislation was changed so that no fund agreements for funds on the fund platform could be signed using the previous application procedure for affiliated funds. New fund agreements can only be signed after award during a procurement for funds to the fund platform.

Yes, a draft fund agreement will be made available in connection to each procurement.

No, there will be no requirement in the fund agreement to provide a link to Swesif's sustainability profile. The requirement in the fund agreement will be to provide a link to the statutory RTS templates that applies since 1 January 2023.

From Q1 2023, the Pensions Authority will offer the possibility to link on the fund portal to Swesif's sustainability profile which has updated its template with information from EU regulations regarding SFDR articles 6, 8 and 9 and parts of the taxonomy. It will be voluntary for managers to display their sustainability information to savers via the link to Swesif's sustainability profile.

The Swedish Fund Selection Agency has an obligation to ensure the savers' freedom of choice. Freedom of choice should be understood as being central to savers' demand. It is the ambition of The Swedish Fund Selection Agency to offer a high quality range of funds for savers to make their individual choices. FTN understands the needs of the savers by analyzing the prerequisites for each category, historical data as well as external factors, among else.

Yes, but a tenderer can only submit one tender per fund. Should more than one tender be submitted for the same fund, all of the tenders for this fund will be disqualified.

However, please note that the submission fee is charged for every individual submission.

The board will make a decision for each category procured, based on a number of factors. Funds already affiliated that are procured will retain their volume.

The fund platform will consist of around 30 procured fund categories. Looking at the existing categories is a good way to gain an understanding of which categories that are to be procured to the fund platform, but this does not mean that the range of categories are limited to those on the platform today.

The first four categories to be procured, without mutual order, is European equity; Active and index, Global Equity; index, Nordic equity; active, and Global Fixed Income.

There is a possibility to procure new categories in the future, if deemed in the interest of the saver. The Swedish Fund Selection Agency will stay informed on external aspects, new strategies and products as well as continousuly evaluate the range of funds on the platform.

Only Swedish and foreign UCITS, Swedish special funds, and foreign equivalents to such special funds (if they can be marketed to non-professional investors in Sweden) can be procured to the fund platform. What each category is comprised of will be clearly specified in connection to each procurement.

As of now, the same requirements on liquidity will apply for the future procured funds as for the funds on the platform today. The Swedish Fund Selection Agency will continuously review the criteria for the procurements and the offering on the fund platform, and monitor market trends and the needs of the savers.

If changes in a fund results in it no longer meeting the criteria that was met at the time of the award, an evaluation will take place, where a potential breach of agreement will be investigated. As the range of funds is designed to offer the savers a variation of funds on the platform as a whole, the fund will remain in the category it was procured to, as long as it lives up to the terms and conditions in the fund agreement.

The number of funds within each category will vary as the range of funds will be designed with the savers interest in focus, both within each category and on the platform as a whole. The number of funds in each category will be decided by factors such as the number of funds available within each category that meets the requirements, price and volume, among else.

The number of funds of each kind there will be on the platform will be decided in the procurement process - in the design of the range of funds, by the evaluation process and the funds available to procure, all with the savers interest in focus.

If a need to procure a new category arises, this will be evaluated. The Swedish Fund Selection Agency will stay informed on external aspects, new strategies and products as well as continousuly evaluate the range of funds on the platform and procure new categories if deemed being in the interest of the saver.

The category is today removed from the fund platform.

The Swedish Pension Agency has been given an assignment from the government to develop the fund selection architecture. The aim is that the range of funds on the platform should be characterized by a high level of transparency and that the saver can make conscious investment choices. The Agency will work closely together with the Pension Agency to keep the saver well informed.

The fund managers that best meet the criteria for suitability, cost-efficiency, sustainability, controllability and quality in the procurements will be awarded and offered to sign a fund agreement regarding funds on the premium pension fund platform. In Sweden, there are many funds of high quality that will have good chances of being awarded in the procurements, but the interests of the pension savers will always be in focus.

A minimum requirement regarding a fund manager's and investment manager's total volume under management may be required to reduce the premium pension saver's risk of choosing funds from a fund manager that cannot fulfil its commitments. Since the agreement period will be long, it is important that the fund managers have the financial resources to develop their operations over time and can fulfil the EU's extensive and resource-intensive compliance and reporting regulations. The minimum AUM threshold may vary depending on the type of fund being procured. This will be communicated in connection with each procurement. The minimum AUM requirement will not be retroactive. The point of time on which the minimum requirement applies will be specified in the tender documents.

The Swedish Fund Selection Agency will procure funds for the premium pension fund platform, which falls within the framework of the Swedish social insurance system. Therefore, special requirements must be set in the procurements to protect the interests of the pension savers. The requirement in the area of IT and cyber security follows from the DORA Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Digital Operational Resilience for the Financial Sector) and aims at ensuring that participants in the financial system have taken the necessary protective measures to counteract cyber-attacks and other IT-related risks.

The scope of the historical data that the Swedish Fund Selectionw Agency will require will be specified in the tender documents and in the fund agreement for each procurement.

All fund managers may need to submit historical NAV prices for the fund that is subject to procurement. The extent of the historical data that the Swedish Fund Selection Agency will require will be specified in the tender documents for each procurement, but will not exceed 10 years.

All Article 9 reporting funds, irrespective of whether an index has been selected as a benchmark or not, will be able to submit tenders, unless otherwise specified in the requirements of the respective procurement.

No. The information must be provided in Swedish.

Criteria that already exist for affiliated funds will continue to exist for affiliated funds.

The criteria for affiliated funds will be replaced by mandatory requirements for the procured funds, which will be specified in the procurement documentation for each procurement.

Notice was made for the first procurement on June 30th 2023.

The tenders will have to be written in English or in Swedish.

There is no strict deadline, but our ambition is to complete the procurement of the new funds during 2025. However, quality is always our priority and is more important than the estimated timetable.

No, there is no advantage to having funds on the current fund platform. All fund companies can submit tenders for the procurements, regardless of whether they are on the funds platform or not, and all fund companies will be treated equally according to the procurement.

Fund managers who do not have their funds on the fund platform today but are interested in procure for the new platform do not need to first add their funds to the current fund platform to participate in a future procurement.

In the coming years, The Swedish Fund Selection Agency will carry out several procurements within different fund categories. The dates set for the closing date of the submissions will be communicated through the procurement material applicable to the respective fund category. At present, we anticipate approximately 6 months from the notice to award.

The award criteria are based on the requirements of cost-efficiency and high quality. The weights for each criteria will be communicated for each procurement.

No. All tenderers will be treated equally in the procurement process.

The state pre selection AP7 Såfa will not be evaluated by the Swedish Fund Selection Agency but will continue to be managed by AP7, that has entered a cooperation agreement with the Swedish Pension Agency. The cost for the operations of AP7 is charged the savers in AP7.

The Swedish Fund Selection Agency will make an overall evaluation of the fund company's organization and its support, where all dimensions such as risk management, reporting, compliance and more will be evaluated. How the evaluation look like will be described in detail in the procurement material for each procurement.

The time period will be communicated in connection to each procurement. Depending on the fund category to be procured and on the time during which notice is made, for example if it is made during holiday periods, the period between notice and deadline for the tender could vary.

Feedback on the procurement results will be offered upon request to the tenderers in the procurement, where the results of a certain fund company is showed relative to the results of the other tenderers. According to the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act, a confidentiality review will be done when a request to access an official document is submitted.

The procured funds will be continuously monitored against the terms and conditions specified in the fund agreement. If a fund no longer meets they mandatory requirements and award criteria that are specified in the fund agreement, this may lead to a breach of contract and possible termination. The time it takes for a fund to be removed from the fund platform after termination of the fund agreement can vary from fund to fund.

FTN's operations and the legislation that governs FTN and the procurements of funds to the premium pension fund platform are designed to quality-assure the funds, with the aim to provide safer and higher pensions for savers. A prerequisite for this is not only to procure the most suitable funds of high quality, but also to exclude fraudulent fund managers to protect the interest of the savers. To ensure this, FTN has implemented a procurement process with thourough evaluation of both funds and fund managers as well as their organisations. The procured funds are continuously monitored to ensure that they follow the terms and conditions specified in the fund agreement throughout the contract period.

The continuous monitoring of funds is of high importance to uphold the quality of the procured funds throughout the contract period. The fund manager should be able provide FTN with the information specified in the fund agreement for each procurement. The collection of the information will be done through questionnaires distributed to fund managers on reoccuring occations, and upon request should FTN need information at other times.

The procured funds will be continously monitored based on the mandatory requirements and the award criteria that has been specified in the fund agreement for each procurement. If a fund no longer meets the terms and conditions in the fund agreement during the contract period, this may lead to a breach of agreement and possible termination. A fund that continuously upholds the strategies, processes, resources and more as stated upon time of award, and follows the terms and conditions in the fund agreement, is considered to have the corresponding quality as it had during the time of procurement.

The legislation states that the fund agreements should contain terms and conditions stating that the assets should be managed in an exemplary manner with regards to sustainability. A minimum criteria should be that the fund manager in the asset management must observe what follows from such international agreements that Sweden has entered into, with regards to sustainability.

An extensive work of forming a sustainability strategy for the fund platform is underway, that among else will contain a definition of the meaning of sustainability for the platform. The mandatory requirements for sustainability on the fund platform will be clearly defined in the procurement documentation for each procurement.

For each category, the Swedish Fund Selection Agency will decide on the qualification criteria and award criteria that among else contains sustainability requirements.

No, there will be no requirement in the fund agreement to provide a link to Swesif's sustainability profile. The requirement in the fund agreement will be to provide a link to the statutory RTS templates that applies since 1 January 2023.

From Q1 2023, the Pensions Authority will offer the possibility to link on the fund portal to Swesif's sustainability profile which has updated its template with information from EU regulations regarding SFDR articles 6, 8 and 9 and parts of the taxonomy. It will be voluntary for managers to display their sustainability information to savers via the link to Swesif's sustainability profile.

Fees will be kept under review and adjusted if necessary, based on cost coverage.

Both approaches are possible. This will be clearly stated in the procurement documents. The funds on the premium pension fund platform should be cost-efficient, offering funds of high quality to as low fees as possible.

The Agency’s activities will be financed through tender fees and an annual fee from the procured funds covering the costs of the activities conducted in accordance with law. The Swedish Fund Selection Agency is not financed by grants from tax funds. The organization is to be financed outside the state budget. Read more about the fees here.

The current discount model for funds on the fund platform today will be phased out and replaced by a fee model based on procurement.

Payment instructions will be included in the tender documents .

In the first stage: nothing. A pension saver still has control over the selected funds and can choose and change funds in the same way as before.

If the pension saver has chosen a fund that no longer exists on the fund platform after completion of a procurement of the relevant fund category, due to fore example that the fund manager has chosen not to participate in the procurements or that the fund manager has not been awarded in the procurement, the Swedish Pensions Agency will contact the pension saver and provide further information.

The transition to the new platform will be gradual as the procurements are made category by category, and will be preceded by an implementation phase where the agency will work together with the fund managers and the units affected at the Swedish Pension Agency. For a period, there will be funds on the fund platform that are both affiliated in accordance with the current regulations (which eventually will cease) and have been procured in accordance with the new law.

The Swedish Fund Selection Agency has taken over the responsibility for certain parts of the agreements with the affiliated funds. The current agreement will apply for an affiliated fund until notice is made for the procurement of the fund category it belongs to.

In connection to the notice for a procurement, the fund agreements for the affiliated funds affected by the procured category will be terminated. However, the affiliated funds will remain on the fund platform until the procurement is finalized, after which the affiliated funds will be replaced by the procured funds.

The Swedish Fund Selection Agency will then enter into new fund agreements with the fund managers who have been selected in a procurement. The transition is mandatory as all funds available on the fund platform will be procured.

Categories that are removed from the platform will be removed gradually, as the new categories are procured and the transition to the procured fund platform is done. The transition will be done in parallell with the procurement, that will be overlapping for the fund platform to be procured in 2025.

The transition to the new fund platform will be handled by internal competence within the office of the Swedish Fund Selection Agency and affected units within the Swedish Pension Agency, such as the trading unit and the fund information unit. The Swedish Fund Selection Agency will monitor and follow up on the transition, to make sure that the savers are not affected by unneccessary transaction costs.

FTN is aware of the risk and will take into account. However, this is not a new phenomenon as similar fund platforms in the world has worked in the same way before, where natural market fluctuations have been seen after terminating a funds contract. FTN's monitoring of the funds will contribute to an increased readiness for this.

Terminating fund contratcs from funds on the fund platform that declines in quality could mean certain transaction costs, but the added value that the savers get in the high quality of the funds on the platform will make up for these costs long term.