By Ian Werther in News — 14 Mar 2026

Korea's National Pension Service Signs Global Alliance with Allianz Global Investors

The National Pension Service of Korea and Allianz Global Investors signed an enterprise-wide strategic alliance on an MOU at the NPS Jeonbuk regional headquarters, marking the first time the pension fund formalized a cross-portfolio partnership with a global asset manager.

AllianzGI is a global, full-service asset manager established in 1998. It has managed NPS’s investments since 2006 and, as of the end of last year, oversees about 6,940 hundred-million dollars in assets, roughly equivalent to $700 billion, with more than 700 professionals in over 21 offices worldwide.

Warming stripes graphic depicting annual mean global temperatures (1850-2018, from World Meteorological Organization data)), said in the reference to have been produced for the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) provisional State of the Climate report
General notes:

Credit for general concept of warming stripes: climate scientist Ed Hawkins, University of Reading, U.K.
Data values are visualized using color rather than locations of points on a graph.
Horizontal scale is time, from 1850 (left) to 2018 (right).
Data is global (not for a locality).
This is an early, original chart from Dr. Hawkins, and should not be updated as the years pass.
Update:

newer versions of the warming stripes under more permissive CC‑BY‑4.0 licensing available here: showyourstripes.info — Representative image for context; not directly related to the specific event in this article. License: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Under the agreement, the two institutions will share investment knowledge and portfolio management experience, conduct long-term strategic discussions on global markets and macroeconomic trends, and collaborate on training, staff exchanges, and other initiatives to strengthen fund-management capabilities.

Kim Seong-ju, the NPS chairman, said the pact would connect Jeonju directly to a global asset-management network, calling it a “living bridge” linking the regional office to worldwide expertise.

Tobias Pross, AllianzGI’s chief executive, described the partnership as a formal, long-term relationship and pledged to support the National Pension Service through joint research and knowledge-sharing to bolster its investment capabilities.

In summer, some polar bears do not make the transition from their winter residence on the Svalbard islands to the dense drift ice and pack ice of the high arctic where they would find a plethora of prey. This is due to global climate change which causes the ice around the islands to melt much earlier than previously. The bears need to adapt from their proper food to a diet of detritus, small animals, bird eggs and carcasses of marine animals. Very often they suffer starvation and are doomed to die. The number of these starving animals is sadly increasing. — Representative image for context; not directly related to the specific event in this article. License: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

As part of the agreement, AllianzGI opened a Jeonju office intended to support ongoing collaboration and practical cooperation, with plans to hire local talent from the Jeonbuk region to staff the new hub.

For U.S. readers, the deal signals the growing importance of Korea’s public pension fund as a major global investor and its willingness to deepen ties with Western asset managers. The move could influence cross-border capital allocation and research collaboration, potentially affecting how Korean assets gain exposure to U.S. markets and, more broadly, how global asset managers coordinate with large Asian institutions on long-term strategies, risk management, and governance.

Subscribe to Journal of Korea