SWEDEN - AMF Pension has announced that it is to grant a contributions holiday for this year to 100,000 employers that contributed to a discontinued defined benefit pensions scheme for Swedish blue-collar workers.

The scheme switched from defined benefits to individual premium-based funded accounts after 1995.

“As a defined benefit scheme our members were promised 10% of a final salary and their employers put enough money to ensure that the promises were fulfilled,” AMF spokesman Conny Johanson told IPE.

AMF Pension is jointly owned by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise and the Swedish trade union confederation (LO).

“The old system, which ran until 1995, has made a surplus of SEK10bn (€1.1bn) as a result of our asset management,” Johanson said.

“The owners decided that the overpayment should be returned and that repayment should be through being excused contributions for this year.”

The holiday will affect around 100,000 employers, he added.

AMF Pension has some SEK260bn in assets under management.