DENMARK – The Danish association for company pension schemes, Foreningen af Firmapensionskasser, is to cancel its membership of the European Federation for Retirement Provision (EFRP) at the end of the year, citing dwindling membership of the association due to a fall in the number of Danish company pension plans.

Frank Andersen, chairman of the association, ascribes the drop in membership to a combination of the administrative burden and tax regime on Danish pension funds, as well as a marked shift to defined contribution (DC) plans away from traditional defined benefit (DB) arrangements.

However, he stresses that withdrawal from the EFRP is not a reflection on the lobby group’s role in the European pensions arena.
“It has been very helpful to be a member of the EFRP, to be able to go to the meetings and be kept in touch with what is going on,” he says.
“We are a very small association and the number of members is decreasing so it is a question about money.”

He adds that the association now represents only a third of the country’s occupational schemes and was an ‘observer’ member of the EFRP.
“The number of company pension funds has decreased over the years, and also the insurance companies are very well established in this country and a lot of company pension funds have reorganised their pension schemes and now have a scheme within insurance companies.
“Although we have some big companies, Denmark is a small country with small companies and they tend to go over to insurance schemes.”

Denmark has around 60 company pension funds, most of which are closed to new members.

Denmark’s other pensions association, the more influential Forsikring & Pension (F&P) remains a full EFRP member and part of the federation’s EC committee, and has been so since its launch in 1991.