The Global Pension Transparency Benchmark (GPTB) has identified weak spots in the transparency of pension funds across Europe, while Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) has been ranked the world’s most transparent fund for the third year in a row.

The GPTB, developed by CEM Benchmarking and Top1000funds.com, was launched in 2021 as the first global standard for measuring transparency among pension and institutional investment funds.

It ranks 75 investment funds from 15 countries using public information found in annual reports, public documents, and websites. The benchmark covers 185 questions across performance, governance, costs and responsible investing.

The GPFG, which is managed by Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), was awarded 100 points, the highest score a pension fund can receive. NBIM CEO, Nicolai Tangen, said the fund is “honoured” by the recognition.

“The fund belongs to the Norwegian people, and they must be able to trust us. We earn that trust by being open about our work and decisions. This ranking reinforces our commitment to transparency,” he added.

Only two other European pension funds joined the GPFG in the top 10; these were the domestic Government Pension Fund Norway, which scored 93 points out of 100 and the Dutch pension fund ABP, which scored 90.

All the other funds in the top 10 were located across Canada, Australia and the USA.

However, many European funds were placed at the higher end of the benchmark, including PFZW (managed by PGGM), bpf BOUW, PMT and PME in the Netherlands, Denmark’s ATP and Sweden’s AP7, AP4, AP3, and the Pension Protection Fund and the Universities Superannuation Scheme in the UK.

Notably, though, several Finnish pension providers scored high in the area of responsible investment, but their average was pulled down by a low score for costs. Indeed, both Varma and Elo scored 98 out of 100 for responsible investment but had scores of 32 and 27 for costs, respectively.

However, Varma head of sustainability, Hanna Kaskela, said the firm was pleased to have improved its score for responsible investment.

In addition, Elo investment director, Jonna Ryhänen, said the firm has “worked purposefully to promote responsibility, for example by developing our investment reporting and responsibility analysis”.

Despite Norway ranking at the top of the index with the GPFG, it was also a Norwegian fund that was the lowest-ranked European fund – the Equinor Pension Fund, the pension fund for employees of the largest energy company in Norway. It scored 39 out of 100.

In response, Equinor financial communication manager, Rikke Høistad Sjøberg, said: "Equinor holds openness as one of our core values and the Equinor Pension Fund is continuously working to improve on transparency. Over the last year, we have taken actions to improve further, and hope the new steps will be appreciated by the community.

"One of the new actions taken is a disclosure on the fund management and governance, striving for more transparency on how the Equinor Pension Fund is creating value."

Meanwhile, other pension funds in Europe at the lower end of the benchmark were Lloyds Bank Pension Scheme in the UK, with a score of 42, and the Oslo Pension Fund, also in Norway, with a score of 44.

More broadly, the report on the GPTB noted that the results revealed that increased scrutiny of public disclosures is driving measurable improvements. For example, in 2025, the average fund scored 65 out of 100, up from 63 last year and 60 in the year prior.

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