Sweden’s Alecta Slapped With $5.4 Million Penalty Over Real Estate Bet

The Swedish financial regulator FSA has imposed the highest possible penalty on Alecta AB after finding the pension fund violated rules when it invested about 50 billion kronor ($5 billion) in domestic property firm Heimstaden Bostad AB.

Alecta, which is Sweden’s largest private pension group and manages 1.4 trillion kronor in assets for roughly a quarter of the population, “disregarded the legal requirements that applied to the company’s investment activities,” the FSA said in a statement. The fine of 50 million kronor is the maximum the FSA can mete out to occupational pension companies.