The Swedish Fund Selection Agency participates at the Swedish Investment Fund Association's Fund Market Day, 22 May 2023

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 documents

The 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 process

The 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 treatment

The 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 governance

The 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 procedure

After 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 agreements

According 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.