A major reform of the Swedish national pensions buffer fund system is now bedding in, with the five funds backing the first-pillar income pension consolidated into just three at the end of 2025 – AP2, AP3 and AP4. Meanwhile, the country’s biggest pension fund – the state-run premium pension default manager AP7 – grows ever larger. With SEK1.5trn (€130bn) to manage, it is working to insource more of its listed equities management while laying the foundations for adding exposure to the alternative asset classes its 2023 revised mandate allowed for. It remains to be seen whether the Fund Selection Agency’s reform of the premium pension’s private funds platform will restore enough public confidence to draw some savings away from the perceived safety of AP7’s default option Såfa. In September, Alecta installs CIO Pablo Bernengo as its new CEO, when Peder Hasslev retires after steering the occupational pensions giant through a serious investments scandal which erupted three years ago.