Finland’s Ilmarinen goes back to basics

Talking Heads: Once one of the few funds that would enter bank risk recycling trades, recent overcrowding has seen it pivot to listed equities

This article is part of our annual Talking Heads series of interviews. The others, and those of previous years, can be found here.

Perhaps fittingly for a company named after a god of invention, Finnish pension fund Ilmarinen has had to reinvent its investment strategy in recent times.

The company was one of the pioneers of so-called risk recycling trades, where investors take on exposures built up by bank structured products desks. But a rush of hedge fund interest in the trade has eroded its