Folksam reported a 0.4% investment loss for its life and pensions division for the first six months of this year, and a -0.6% return for its local authority pensions subsidiary KPA Pension, beating the investment performance of Sweden’s other large insurance-based pension operators.

Pensions and insurance group Folksam said it had remained “financially strong and stable” during an otherwise turbulent period on global markets, reporting a strengthened solvency ratio of 162% for the life insurance parent company, up from 155% reported at the end of Q1 2020.

However, this is down from the 169% reported for the end of 2019.

Ylva Wessén, Folksam group chief executive, said: “Since the end of March, the stock markets have recovered, but we have not yet seen the final consequences of the pandemic in the longer term.”

Folksam said total assets under management grew to SEK462bn (€45bn) for the group, which includes its SEK47bn general insurance division, from SEK455bn at the end of 2019, having taken in SEK35.5bn in premiums in the six-month period.

The firm achieved a stronger investment result than Sweden’s two largest pension providers, life insurance companies AMF and Alecta. AMF yesterday reported a 1.4% investment loss while Alecta posted investment losses for both its defined benefit and defined contribution schemes of 1.1% and 2.2%, respectively, earlier this month. 

Meanwhile, the life and pensions arm of Swedish financial group Skandia reported a negative return on investments of 2.6% for the first half, compared with a positive 6.6% return in the same period last year, with total assets dropping to SEK483bn from SEK498bn at the end of 2019.

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