By Muskan Arora
Timo Löyttyniemi, chief executive officer of the $27.2B State Pension Fund of Finland (Valtion Eläkerahasto, or VER) will retire in early 2026, with the hunt for his successor set to begin mid-August.
Reflecting back on his journey at VER, the CEO considers the long steady development of the plan’s strategy as a “key value-add” during his time and cited the plan’s behavior in different market crises, including the financial crisis of 2008, as successful.
“As a buffer fund, we were able to be a buyer in the equity market at a time when most of the other pension funds were sellers of equities,” said Löyttyniemi, in an email to Markets Group. “This turned out to be a wise move as equity markets started rising in the first half of 2009.”
Löyttyniemi, who started at the plan in 2003, left the company in 2015 only to re-join in March 2020 after serving as the vice chair at the Single Resolution Board for five years.
In the current environment, the CEO is bullish toward private credit and is following how the private markets are developing post-interest-rate shock.
Identifying private credit as an interesting asset class in 2008, when the investors were focused more on distressed and crisis related funds, he now considers opportunities shifting to sponsor-related funds and defense sectors.
“Infrastructure and private credit have been good asset classes as higher interest rates did not impact the returns of those funds,” Löyttyniemi told Markets Group at the time. “The venture capital market is still suffering from the turmoil, but some segments like the dual-use defense sector has been opportune for many companies.”
While he still remains excited about the potential for growth in the current market, particularly in Europe’s technology sector, he noted a gap remains in substantial growth and fragmented equity markets. “There are many eyes looking at that, but it seems that no silver bullet has been found,” Löyttyniemi added, in the email.
