Alecta Board Chair Ingrid Bonde Resigns | Chief Investment Officer

The Swedish pension fund fired its CEO and replaced its head of equities earlier this year after losing $2 billion from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

Alecta, Sweden’s largest pension fund, announced that the chairman of its board, Ingrid Bonde, has stepped down. Bonde’s resignation comes as Alecta faces scrutiny over recent investment losses. Jan-Olof Jacke will serve as interim chairman until a replacement is found.

“In a situation where there has been too much focus on my person, I have decided to resign,” Bonde said in a statement in Swedish. “With new CEO and new management personnel on their way in, Alecta is well equipped for its challenges. I now need to devote my time and energy to my family and my other assignments.”

Earlier this year, Alecta revealed it lost 19.6 billion Swedish kronor ($1.9 billion) from its investments in Silicon Valley Bank, First Republic Bank and Signature Bank, which collapsed in March. The fund’s losses resulted in Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority opening an investigation of the fund’s risk-taking. Another probe is investigating Alecta’s investment into property company Heimstaden Bostad.

Bonde is one of several Alecta executives to resign or be fired this year. Magnus Billing, the fund’s former CEO was fired in April due to scrutiny of Alecta investments. The banking crisis fallout also led to the removal of Liselott Linn, head of equities. In June, Henrik Gade Jepsen, Alecta’s head of asset management, resigned.

As chair, Bonde oversaw the replacement of those positions, including the June hiring of new CEO Peder Hasslev, the August selection of Pablo Bernengo as the fund’s new head of asset management and the September announcement of Magnus Tell as the new equity manager.

Alecta first opened a position in Signature Bank in 2016. The fund invested in SVB and First Republic in 2019. By 2022, Alecta was the fifth largest shareholder of SVB and First Republic and the sixth largest shareholder in Signature Bank, according to data from Bloomberg.

Alecta manages pensions for 2.6 million individuals and 35,000 companies in Sweden, according to its website. The fund currently has 1.1 trillion Swedish kronor ($101 billion) in assets under management. Alecta’s losses from its holding in SVB and other failed banks were roughly 2% of the fund’s holdings at the time.

“The investments in U.S. banks were a failure,” said Katarina Thorslund, then acting CEO, earlier this year.