In recent years, Storebrand has taken up the fight for the public pension market against KLP. This is a battle that Storebrand has so far come through unscathed. Since Storebrand entered the market in 2019, they have beaten KLP in 7 out of 7 tender competitions.

Jon Hippe, Director of Public Pensions at Storebrand, tells AMWatch’s Norwegian sister media FinansWatch that so far this year, five municipalities have decided to go the tender route, three of which have already initiated the processes.

”There may be more decisions to tender, but probably not very many,” says Hippe.

Expected increase

This is already one more municipality than last year, and Storebrand assumes that the number will increase further next year as there are already several municipalities that have initiated processes. Hippe adds that this figure may change.

Last year, Storebrand submitted a request to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESA) to assess whether a lack of tendering in the procurement of public sector occupational pensions is a breach of the EEA Agreement. Earlier this year, ESA issued a preliminary assessment agreeing with Storebrand.

Norway announced in June that it will not budge and stands by its position.

A possible next step would then be for ESA to send an opening letter to Norway, which could potentially be the start of a formal case against Norway for violating public procurement rules.

(This article was provided by our Norwegian sister media, FinansWatch. Translated using DeepL with additional editing by Catherine Brett)