Focus on IT developments has been key part of strategy

AP7 has won an IPE Country Award for fund structure and administration in Sweden.
The AP7 national fund is the default fund of the Swedish PPM system set up two years ago. Since then, the developments within the PPM system and the AP7 fund itself have been closely followed by professionals across Europe’s pension industry, and this award recognises the hard work involved in making the system work.
How a specific, administrative situation has been “greatly improved” is a judge’s view of what AP7 has achieved.
Richard Gröttheim, executive vice-president at the AP7 fund, comments: “We are very happy that we have received this award because we believe our administrative set-up is quite unique in the market. Two years ago we developed a strategy that is effective and cost-efficient, and we are happy with the way things are going.”
He explains how developing the right IT tools to support all the administrative tasks has been one of the fund’s main focuses since it was created. “This allows us to provide the best services at the same time that we minimise costs.”
Taking into account that the PPM system has now around 5m members, and that a significant proportion of them go into the default fund when they join the system, making information easily available to savers and provide them with fast and effective support is crucial. “Because we started this fund from scratch only a couple of years ago we took into account all the technical aspects we needed in order to keep things moving,” he says. “For the near future we will be focused on fine tuning all the technical aspects to improve things further.”
Gröttheim says that AP7 members are pleased with the service they receive. “They are paying 16 basis points for a very attractive product, and this is the best way to prove the effectiveness of our strategy.”
He adds: “For us winning the IPE award is very important, because it shows we are on the right track and hopefully others will follow similar routes.”