SWEDEN - Adam Laurén has been appointed interim acting chief executive at AP6, one of the national buffer funds, following the surprise resignation of Marianne Dicander Alexandersson after less than a year in that role.

Laurén is currently the CFO at AP6 and has previously worked as the acting chief executive.

He will assume his role on 1 May, when Dicander Alexandersson leaves.

Michaël Berglund Executive Search is currently working to find a permanent chief executive at the fund.

In other news, Italian insurer Generali is opening an office in Stockholm through Generali PanEuropa, its Ireland-based subsidiary.

The company said it had been working for some time to tailor its pensions products to the Swedish market, which will be distributed through local intermediaries and advisers.

Mats Arousell has been appointed head of sales, joining from Direct Financial Services, part of Söderberg & Partners, a Swedish consultancy.

The Generali Group is one of the largest insurers in Europe, with more than €470bn in assets under management.

Meanwhile, Collectum, the pensions administrator for ITP - the white-collar professional occupational pension system - said it was satisfied with the 7.8% return reported by fund providers in the system over the past four and a half years.

Currently, five companies offer services within the system: Alecta, AMF, Länsförsäkringar, Nordea and Skandia.

AMF has been the top performer, with returns of 16.4% over the period, while Nordea has been the worst performer, returning 1.1%.

Over the last two and a half years, the providers have had a negative return of 2.5% during a time when the benchmark index fell by 5%, Collectum said.

Lastly, Skandia Liv, following its recent demutualisation, is aiming to cut SEK350m (€39.2m) in costs per year as part of a reorganisation that will phase out 80-100 jobs.

No redundancies are expected, as the company is offering voluntary redundancy packages.

The staff and areas of the business specifically affected by the reorganisation will be identified in May.

Not all cost reduction will stem from staff reductions, but also from the demutualisation itself and not having to make payments to former owner Old Mutual, the company said.

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