Nine companies awarded mandates for Sweden's ITP pension scheme

SWEDEN – Nine companies have been awarded mandates for the next five-years in Sweden's white-collar occupational pension scheme ITP.

Collectum, which administers ITP, said four companies were awarded mandates in the traditional insurance pension, and five companies gained mandates for the unit-linked pension.

Alecta was re-selected as the default traditional pension provider for those scheme members making no choice.

The four companies gaining traditional insurance pension mandates were Alecta, AMF, Folksam and Skandia, while providers winning the unit-linked mandates were AMF, Danica, SEB, SPP and Swedbank.

Jenny Jeppsson, head of information at Collectum, said: "This time, too, the tender process will result in more money for pension savers."

A request to participate in the tender was sent to all FSA-approved Swedish insurance companies in December, Collectum said.
 
Following this, five companies submitted bids for the traditional pension mandates, and 12 submitted bids for the unit-linked pensions in early February.

Collectum said the new contract demanded both low fees and the potential for high returns from providers.

The new contract comes into force on 1 July 2013 and runs to 30 September 2018.

Jeppsson said the ITP scheme was a simple and cost-effective occupational pension solution that gave a lot of pension for the money.

"Again, we see that procurement contributes strongly to this," she said.

Two of ITP's current providers – Nordea and Länsförsäkringar – were not awarded new mandates either for traditional pensions or unit-linked pensions, although Nordea chose not to participate in the procurement process for the traditional mandates, a spokesman for Collectum said.

Handelsbanken, which has an existing mandate for the provision of unit-linked pensions, also failed to win a new mandate, he said.

New providers coming to ITP in this award round are Folksam for traditional pensions, and SPP and Swedbank for unit-linked pensions.

Swedbank will be returning as an ITP provider after a three-year gap.