The Swedish health and social affairs ministry has announced that the upcoming board authority controlling the reformed premium pension system’s funds platform board authority will be located somewhere outside Stockholm county.

The ministry has also announced a reshuffle of the committee of experts serving in the ongoing inquiry into a procured funds platform, or funds marketplace (fondtorg) for the premium pension system – and extended the deadline once more for the work to be completed.

The ministry said the government had taken the next step in reforming the country’s system of individual pension accounts – which makes up a proportion of the overall state pension – by commissioning the implementation inquiry to decide where the new board authority for the procured fund market should be located.

Ardalan Shekarabi, minister of social insurance, said: “It is important for the state’s legitimacy that it is present throughout the country. New authorities will therefore be located outside Stockholm County.”

The inquiry’s committee’s deadline for completing its work is being extended by four months to 31 December, the ministry announced. A spokesman for the ministry told IPE that preparations were being made for the board authority to be up and running at the end of the year, or at the start of 2022.

Back in 2018, the government envisaged the new authority would start work on 1 September 2020, but the schedule has now been put back several times since then.

The ministry has also announced changes to the list of experts working on the inquiry, with 20 people having left on 1 March, and nine having been newly appointed with effect from 19 February.

Among those now leaving are Stefan Lundbergh, director of Cardano Insights, AP7’s Ingrid Albinsson and Johan Florén – CIO and head of communications and ESG, respectively, at the pension fund – and Erik Fransson, director of the fund department at the Swedish Pensions Agency.

Meanwhile, among new experts coming onto the inquiry’s committee are Majdi Chammas and Tina Rönnholm, who lead AP1’s external partnerships and innovation operation.

On 17 February, the cross-party pensions group agreed key details about the nature of the new procured platform, which is to replace the current more inclusive arrangement.

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