Sweden’s labour-market parties have decided to consolidate their occupational pensions administration considerably, with white and blue-collar schemes coming under the same brand, in order to make the system simpler and cut costs.

Trade union organisations LO and PTK, which broadly include office and manual workers’ unions respectively, have agreed with employers’ organisation the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv) to merge the administrative functions of Collectum and Fora – the administrative entities of the ITP and SAF-LO workplace pension schemes into the Avtalat brand.

The brand Avtalat was launched in 2019 by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, LO and PTK, as a new platform for collectively-agreed occupational pension and insurance – initially as an information service, taking over from the previous Finfa advice and information platform, and information units at LO  and PTK, but with the intention that it would be a more comprehensive portal later on.

However, the regulations for ITP and SAF-LO will continue to be administered by each of the existing companies, it said. The two schemes will continue to be different from each other and Collectum and Fora will still be responsible for procurement of providers as currently.

Christer Ågren, chair of Avtalat, said in yesterday’s announcement: “Through the agreement, we will continue the work of simplifying things for customers through Avtalat, which will become the common brand for the market.

“At the same time, we will achieve more cost-effective administration for the collectively-agreed insurance,” he said.

The parties announced that work would now start to appoint a joint CEO and management team for the operation, and said the changes were expected to be completed by 2027, with employees working in common premises in 2026.

“We will get the opportunity to reduce operating costs, which in the long run can lead to lower fees for the services delivered,” Ågren said.

Ågren told the news service Pensionsnyheterna that the parties expected to be able to save around SEK200m to SEK250m a year by merging the activities, equating to a reduction of between 20% and 25% on the current SEK1bn of costs year.

Read the digital edition of IPE’s latest magazine

Rachel is IPE's Nordic correspondent. She has long been a freelance writer, and over the years, has written for The Telegraph, The Independent, The Observer, AMWatch and elsewhere. In 2001, Rachel's personal finance book Kickstart Your Money was published by John Wiley & Sons.View full Profile

More from Rachel Fixsen

Topics