Denmark’s pensions lobby has issued a plea for better investment conditions in Denmark and Europe, including less regulation, arguing this could keep more of the expected large volumes of new Danish pensions investment money on this side of the Atlantic.
Insurance & Pension Denmark (IPD) said this morning that Danish pension funds – which currently hold more than DKK4trn (€540bn) of assets – were set to invest DKK400bn (€54bn) of new pensions money between now and 2030.
Kent Damsgaard, IPD’s chief executive officer, said he was worried that too many investments would bypass Europe in the absence of clear and concrete steps to boost European competitiveness.
He said: “Many investors continue to look very much towards the US, as the return for a long time has simply been better than in Europe – despite the good political intentions in Europe over the past year to remove burdens and increase competitiveness.”
“But more must frankly be done to attract investments to Europe,” he said.
Around a third of Danish pension assets are invested in Denmark, according to IPD, with the remainder invested abroad – primarily in the EU and the US. Since 2018, the association said, Danish pension fund investments in the US have grown significantly.
Asked to specify what measures are needed at a national and European level, Andreas Hartington, head of analytics at IPD, told IPE that, firstly, a general halt on new regulation in the next few years would give companies and investors the confidence to invest and innovate.
“Secondly, simplifying and streamlining existing regulation is important,” he said.
“We strongly support the Danish minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs Morten Bødskov for his message on hitting the pause button, and his clear proposals to reduce bureaucracy in sustainability regulation.”
IPD supported the European Union’s efforts to simplify Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) reporting, Hartington said, but added that so far, not enough had actually been achieved regarding this.
Lastly, he said, focus on the European Commission’s Savings and Investment Union (SIU) initiative was very important.
“We urge Danish leaders to promote the options for combining public and private funds,” he said, adding that governments should foster public-private partnerships, providing incentives and creating frameworks that attract private capital into infrastructure and high-potential sectors.
The EU’s Omnibus I package of proposals to simplify EU rules on sustainability and investments suffered a setback two weeks ago when it was rejected by the European Parliament, sending negotiators back to the drawing board.
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