February 2026
06Feb

Danish pensions’ US investment dilemma

Pension funds in Denmark are under government pressure to invest more at home, with some reassessing their US exposure amid concerns over financial stability and geopolitical tensions. AkademikerPension and PFA recently cut their holdings of US Treasuries, for instance. Similarly, investors across Europe and beyond are considering – or undertaking – their own action. President Donald Trump’s threats to seize Danish-ruled Greenland, though, are of particular relevance to Copenhagen. Decisions like these cannot be taken lightly or quickly, as Menno van den Elsaker of Dutch...

February 6, 2026
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January 2026
21Jan

Danish pension fund to sell $100 million in U.S. Treasuries due to “poor U.S. government finances”

A Danish pension fund is planning to sell its entire holdings of U.S. Treasuries — about $100 million — over concerns about the U.S. government's financial stability. AkademikerPension confirmed to CBS News that it is exiting U.S. Treasuries by the end of this month and that it will instead turn to the U.S. dollar and short-duration debt. "The decision is rooted in the poor U.S. government finances, which make us think that we need to make an effort to find an...

January 21, 2026
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December 2025
15Dec

The latest retirement in the world: which country has it and how far is the US?

Countries with low official retirement ages tend to have high effective retirement ages, meaning that people tend to work until their mid-60s, regardless of where they live. Such nations include Australia, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States. But it is Libya that has the highest official retirement age, set at 70 years. Denmark will soon match the African country with the highest official retirement age in the world, that is, the age at which a person can access their full government...

December 15, 2025
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June 2025
13Jun

​Danish architects’ pension fund to push climate agenda harder at Sampension

The new chair of the Danish architects’ pension fund has vowed to work harder for climate and biodiversity in the political sphere and within the pension fund’s partnership with Sampension – especially now that switching to another provider seems less likely. Pensionskassen Arkitekter & Designere (PAD) announced on Wednesday that its board had constituted architect Rikke Rohr as the new chair, taking over from Mads Gudmand-Høyer, after she was elected by the fund’s members, with Kenneth Winther – appointed by...

June 13, 2025
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May 2025
23May

Denmark. Denmark to raise retirement age to highest in Europe

Denmark is set to have the highest retirement age in Europe after its parliament adopted a law raising it to 70 by 2040. Since 2006, Denmark has tied the official retirement age to life expectancy and has revised it every five years. It is currently 67 but will rise to 68 in 2030 and to 69 in 2035. The retirement age at 70 will apply to all people born after 31 December 1970. The new law passed on Thursday with 81 votes...

May 23, 2025
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21May

$125B Danish Pension Removes Defense Stocks From Blacklist

PFA Pension, the largest pension fund in Denmark, will reverse a rule that prohibited investments in a select number of defense stocks. The 828-billion-Danish-kroner ($125 billion) pension fund will no longer blacklist companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons, the fund announced Monday. The change comes as many European countries are preparing to increase defense spending over the next decade. “The world has changed significantly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and there is both here at home and broadly in...

May 21, 2025
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March 2025
19Mar

​Danish pensions lobby rejects pension withdrawals for home purchase

Denmark’s pensions industry has rejected the idea of allowing younger people to withdraw their pension savings to finance home buying, saying people should rather be increasing pension contributions. Analysts at the Danish central bank, Danmarks Nationalbank, recently produced a report on access to the housing market for younger people with targeted financing relief, in which they also rejected the idea, currenly under discussion, of freeing young people to use their pension savings for house purchases. According to the report, authored by five analysts:...

March 19, 2025
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January 2025
17Jan

Pension reform and wealth inequality: Theory and evidence

By Torben M. Andersen, Joydeep Bhattacharya, Anna Grodecka-Messi & Katja Mann A growing literature explores reasons for rising wealth inequality, but is mostly silent on the role of pension systems despite their well-understood influence on life-cycle savings. This paper develops a simple life-cycle model to lay bare the primary theoretical mechanisms connecting pension systems, asset accumulation, and the wealth distribution. Mandated fully-funded plans transform individuals with lower incomes, often characterized as low savers, into asset owners, and may also imply...

January 17, 2025
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November 2024
19Nov

Danish pension fund targets Asian clean energy bets

By Hugo Cox   PensionDanmark, Denmark’s $51 billion pension fund, has identified clean energy solutions, including many in Asia, as its number one sustainability priority for 2025. It is aiming to build on existing direct allocations in the region, which include wind and solar projects in India, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan. “We are now heavily involved in green energy infrastructure development projects throughout the region," Jan Kæraa Rasmussen, head of ESG and sustainability at PensionDanmark in Copenhagen told AsianInvestor. "It’s a very important market...

November 19, 2024
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13Nov

Danish pension fund pushes for Japan, Korea to abandon coal

PensionDanmark, Denmark’s $51 billion pension fund, is calling on Japan and South Korea to completely wean themselves off coal-generated power by 2030. “We have decided not to finance new coal power planned after 2023 anywhere in the world," Jan Kæraa Rasmussen, head of ESG and sustainability at PensionDanmark told AsianInvestor. "Our ask for utilities in developed countries, including in Japan and South Korea, is that they present comprehensive plans to phase out coal as soon as possible. And that should be closer...

November 13, 2024
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