Sweden's Largest Pension Fund Loses $1-B In Shuttered Banks

Sweden’s largest pension fund, Alecta, is under fire this week for investments it made into now-defunct US regional banks, Will Daniel reported for Fortune magazine.

Photo Insert: Alecta CEO Magnus Billing admitted that the investments were a "big failure."

After the collapse of the tech-startup-focused Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on Friday and the crypto-focused Signature Bank on Sunday—the second-and third-largest bank failures in American history, respectively—the private pension manager for 2.6 million Swedes is facing over $1 billion in losses.

“It’s a big failure for us,” Alecta admitted, and fund members are asking why executives failed to see the warning signs that SVB and Signature Bank had put all their amber eggs in one basket.

SVB and Signature Bank had too much faith in tech firms and the venture capital markets that they failed to spread the risks and reduce losses.

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