The agency responsible for procuring investment funds for offer within Sweden’s premium pension system is on the lookout for sustainability/ESG platforms for use in its own analysis of funds, according to an announcement today.

The Swedish Fund Selection Agency (Fondtorgsnämnden, FTN) said this morning it is now preparing the ground for a tender later this year for sustainability/ESG platforms.

The platforms will be used for the analysis of financial portfolios – standardised and existing platforms that the agency can use off-the-shelf, the FTN said.

“As part of the background research, FTN has published a Request for Information (RFI),” it said.

The deadline for submitting a response to that RFI is 30 August, the agency said.

“FTN is responsible for procuring, monitoring, and quality-assuring the funds in the Swedish premium pension system, and to cater for a safer and higher pension for the Swedish pension savers,” the agency said.

According to the law, it said, the funds the FTN selects have to be sustainable and fulfil minimum criteria for sustainability.

The FTN said it needed to evaluate sustainability commitments made by fund managers and ensure the minimum sustainability requirements were met – both at the time of the procurement and throughout the contract period.

The first-pillar Swedish premium pension system currently has approximately SEK2.4trn (€211bn) of assets under management, with around half of that now being managed by the state-run default option provider AP7, and the rest through private-sector fund managers via the funds platform.

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