Sweden's largest pension fund, Alecta, has spent much of the past year improving governance, risk management, competence, and culture after suffering a $2 billion loss in 2023 due to its investments in collapsed US regional banks, including Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
Alecta manages 1.31 trillion Swedish kronor ($126 billion) in assets and was the fourth largest shareholder in SVB at the time of its collapse. As a result of this loss, the fund faced a significant blow to its reputation and immediately dismissed its CEO, Magnus Billing, and its Head of Equities, Liselott Ledin. "We have worked intensively on developing and implementing improvement measures to strengthen Alecta," said Peder Hasslev, who was brought on as CEO in September 2023.
The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) launched an investigation into Alecta's losses in May 2023. This investigation later expanded to include the fund's investment in the indebted real estate company Heimstaden Bostad, where Alecta lost SEK 12.7 billion. Preliminary findings from the FSA, released in July, indicated regulatory violations. Alecta was given until September 6 to respond.
Join The Discussion