Indeed, the €27.5bn Norwegian life and pension firm Vital is already planning to increase its allocation to private equity, hedge funds and emerging market equities. It is also planning to make its first foray into infrastructure.

Meanwhile the Finnish state is finally set to merge its financial and insurance supervisory bodies after more than 10 years of talks. The new structure, which will be up and running by January 2009, is expected to strip out inefficiency and avoid confusion.

“There have been different interpretations of investments from the financial and insurance supervisors, which have created frustration,” Matti Leppälä, director of international and legal affairs at Tela, the Finnish Pension Alliance, told the magazine (see page 10).

Not wanting to be left out, the Swedish government has also been busy. It wants to take a more active role in the AP funds’ ethical investments and has set up a committee to look into how effective the buffer funds’ green policies are (see page 11).

This, however, has not gone down well with the AP funds. “I don’t think there is a need to make any changes to our ethical policies,” Kerstin Hessius, chief executive officer at AP 3, told the magazine. “I believe we are at the forefront when it comes tackling ethical and environmental concerns and have good policies for responsible investments and thorough procedures for working with the companies we invest in.”

Annika Andersson, head of corporate governance at AP 4, agrees: “I think our present system is good – we take a lot of responsibility for the companies we invest in.”

But their concerns will not halt the government’s plans. The committee has started its work and will publish its findings at the end of next year.

Chris Newlands, editor

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