Taiwan's Bureau of Labor Funds (BLF), which manages a substantial NT$7.79 trillion ($247 billion) in assets, is reportedly planning to engage asset managers for new overseas investment mandates. This move comes less than a year after the BLF last appointed external managers for similar ventures. The pension fund intends to invite pitches from asset management firms in the coming months, according to sources familiar with the private deliberations.
This initiative follows a recent trend of the BLF actively managing its portfolio. In July 2026, the BLF selected two local and three foreign asset managers for a NT$55 billion ($1.71 billion) domestic equity mandate. Prior to that, in January 2026, the BLF awarded a NT$50 billion ($1.58 billion) domestic absolute return equity mandate to four foreign and one local firm, with each receiving NT$10 billion. These funds were allocated to the Labour Pension Fund (LPF) and the National Pension Insurance.
The BLF oversees eight pension and annuity funds, with total assets under management reaching approximately NT$8.41 trillion ($286 billion) as of late 2025. The LPF alone holds about NT$5.1 trillion of these assets. The fund has also made strategic adjustments to its currency exposure, trimming some dollar-denominated equity and fixed-income positions in mandates overseen by external managers due to market volatility and a global reassessment of dollar assets, as reported in May 2026 by Astraea Lin, director of BLF’s Foreign Investment Division.
