Swedish pension company Alecta has stated that its return for the first half of 2023 was stable despite a “turbulent” spring, in which the pension firm reported losses due to the US banking crisis.

Alecta had invested in three of the worst affected banks, resulting in losses of approximately SEK 20bn.

“The loss of SEK 20 billion is an enormous amount and we fully understand that customers and owners have been worried,” commented Alecta acting CEO, Katarina Thorslund.

“It is important for us to make sure that something like this does not happen again, and that customers can feel confident that we are doing everything we can to ensure that.”

The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority has announced that it has launched an investigation into Alecta’s risk management, with the pension company stating that it is cooperating fully with this.

Despite this, Alecta Optimal Pension’s return was 6.6 per cent in H1 2023, up from -12.7 per cent in the first half of 2022.

Its return at an annual rate over the past five years was 7.6 per cent, up from 6.7 per cent in H1 2022.

The collective consolidation rate for the defined benefit insurance fell by 10 percentage points year-on-year to 175 per cent.

Alecta’s solvency ratio fell slightly between H1 2022 and H1 2023, from 211 per cent to 209 per cent.

Total capital that Alecta manages rose from SEK 1,124bn at the end of the first half of 2022 to SEK 1,210bn at the end of the first half of this year.

Managed capital in the total portfolio for defined benefit insurance amounted to SEK 960bn at the end of H1 2023, up from SEK 916bn a year prior.

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