The Swedish Fund Selection Agency (FTN) makes notice for procurement of actively managed European equity funds

The Swedish Fund Selection Agency, also called FTN, is now making notice for the procurement of actively managed European equity funds - the first procurement for the premium pension fund platform. The notice marks the start of a series of procurements that will be made to offer high quality funds on the Fund platform, with the aim of creating a more secure premium pension system with higher pensions for savers.

The procurement covers actively managed European equity funds with a primary focus on investments in large and/or mid cap, for which up to six funds will be procured. As of May 31st 2023, approximately SEK 11 billion of savers' premium pensions were invested in this category. European small cap equity funds will be procured later in a separate procurement.

The aim of FTN is to procure, review and quality-ensure the funds on the premium pension fund platform. The procurement is carried out in accordance with the Act Procurement of Funds to the Premium Pension Fund Platform, with a process based on industry practice. According to the Act, the procured funds must be cost-efficient, sustainable, controllable, of high-quality, and suitable for the premium pension system and the Swedish social security system.

"FTN is now making notice for the first procurement of funds to the premium pension fund platform. The reform of the fund platform has been preceded by preparatory work that began as early as 2018 when a public inquiry was initiated. In 2022, the government bill on the reform was passed in parliament, followed by the establishment of FTN. This year, the work for the procurement has intensified and now we have reached this milestone for the premium pension system," says Mats Sjöstrand, Chairman of FTN.

The notice of the procurement means that fund managers can submit a tender, which must be submitted to FTN no later than September 14th 2023 via the procurement platform e-Avrop. Participation requires the payment of a tender fee, which must be paid at the latest when a tender for a procurement is submitted.

In connection with the notice of the procurement, the fund agreements for the affiliated funds affected by this procurement will be terminated. However, the funds will continue to be available on the fund platform until the procurement is completed and the procured funds that have been awarded fund agreements replace the affiliated funds.

To ensure that all potential tenderers are treated equally, no information regarding the procurement will be shared directly with individual tenderers. All dialogue relating to the ongoing procurement, including questions and answers, will be handled via e-avrop.com, where questions must be submitted no later than September 4th 2023. FTN will answer questions on an ongoing basis, between July 31st and September 8th 2023.

Please note that documents received by an authority, such as tenders, are public documents and may therefore be disclosed in their entirety if someone requests access to them. However, information protected by confidentiality is not disclosed. It is therefore important that the fund manager clarifies which parts of the material submitted in the tender should be covered by confidentiality and describes in what way the Fund Manager would suffer harm if the information were disclosed. However, FTN will make an independent confidentiality assessment which in turn may ultimately be reviewed by a court.

Further information can be found in the Procurement documents.

Tenders: Submitted via the procurement platform e-Avrop: www.e-avrop.com External link, opens in new window.

A registration in e-Avrop is required to be able to submit a tender.

The deadline for submission of a tender is 14-09-2023 23:59 (CET).

Questions and answers in the procurement process are handled via e-avrop.com.

Information on ongoing procurements will be published here