NTMA picks Amundi, BlackRock, State Street and UBS for new wealth funds

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The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has picked international investment giants Amundi, BlackRock, State Street and UBS as asset managers for its two fledgling sovereign wealth funds.

Each of the firms will manage funds on a so-called passive basis, by tracking major stock and bond market indices, rather than actively selecting individual investments to make up portfolios, the NTMA said in a statement on Monday.

The investment committee of the Future Ireland Fund (FIF), set up in 2024 to pay for additional healthcare and pension costs associated with a growing and ageing population from 2041, decided early last month to initially put 80 per cent of its assets into equities, with the remainder in bonds. The aim is for this fund to grow to €100 billion by 2035.

Some 90 per cent of the money in the second fund, the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund (ICNF), will be put to work in low-risk bonds and deposit accounts, with the remaining 10 per cent in public higher-risk bonds.

The ICNF, seen growing to €14 billion by the end of this decade, is designed to ensure that capital spending on infrastructure and climate action projects is maintained in the event of a future economic shock.

Both the FIF and ICNF are referred to collectively as the Future Ireland Funds. They were set up with the aim of capturing and investing windfall tax revenues.

At the end of 2025, the larger of the two funds had €12.5 billion and the ICNF had €4 billion – initially mainly invested in low-risk, high-credit quality portfolio of euro-area sovereign bonds, before the long-term investment strategy was set.

“The selection of investment managers is an important step to facilitate the implementation of the long-term investment strategies for the Future Ireland Funds, which were announced last month,” said Rebekah Brady, director of the NTMA’s Future Ireland Funds unit.

“These managers will work on behalf of the Future Ireland Funds to deliver our investment exposure as both funds gradually move into markets. This is an important mechanism for ensuring the funds are invested in a prudent and effective manner to deliver on their legislative mandates.”

Over time, the larger of the two funds will be diversified further, to comprise 70 per cent publicly quoted equities, 10 per cent bonds, 10 per cent real estate and infrastructure, 5 per cent private equity and 5 per cent private credit investments, according to the NTMA.