The Danish pension fund for doctors, Lægernes Pension, insists it is holding onto its bank subsidiary, despite the increasing level of banking regulation, which has partly prompted pension fund PenSam to sell its banking arm to a high-street bank.
PenSam, which established PenSam Bank back in 1990 alongside other subsidiaries enabling it to offer different types of products, announced last week that Arbejdernes Landsbank had acquired its internet-based bank.
The DKK206bn (€27.6bn) pension fund, whose members largely work in the public sector, said it was “particularly the increased regulatory requirements for banking operations and modest synergies in relation to the core pension business that have led to the decision to sell PenSam Bank”.
Torsten Fels, PenSam Group chief executive officer, said: “Over the years, PenSam Bank has offered good and tailored banking solutions for PenSam members.
“I am very pleased that it is Arbejdernes Landsbank that is now taking over PenSam Bank. We share a natural commonality of values, and the acquisition opens up new opportunities for our customers in a bank that also understands them and their needs,” he said.
The deal, expected to take place in the third quarter of this year, has yet to be approved by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority and the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority.
IPE asked Lægernes Pension – the only other Danish labour-market pension fund operating a banking subsidiary – whether it was also considering selling its bank operation, set up in 1992, and whether the regulatory burden was a problem.
Anders Lehmann, head of communications and press, said: “Lægernes Pension is satisfied with the development at Lægernes Bank, and has no plans to sell the bank.”
“Lægernes Bank is developing positively with growth in total business volume of 12%, increased product offering, high customer satisfaction and its best result to date of DKK161m before tax in 2024,” he said.
“Comprehensive and increasing regulation of the financial sector has been a condition for a number of years, and a condition that Lægernes Bank must and can handle in its everyday life,” Lehmann added.
“Currently, there is increasing political attention to reducing administrative burdens and strengthening the competitiveness of companies, which will hopefully contribute to improving the framework conditions for the financial sector as well,” he said, adding that Lægernes Pension & Bank welcomed this development.
Lehmann said members of the doctors’ pension fund benefited from the commercially sound development of the bank, due to the pension fund’s 100% ownership of it.
“The ownership, and the bank’s targeted focus on doctors, mean that over the years Lægernes Pension & Bank has been able to deliver attractive products, solutions and not least thorough and targeted advice, which gives the doctors an overview of their family’s overall financial situation,” he explained.
Lægernes Pension, including the bank, had total assets of DKK129.5bn at the end of 2024.
Read the digital edition of IPE’s latest magazine
Rachel is IPE's Nordic correspondent.
She has long been a freelance writer, and over the years, has written for The Telegraph, The Independent, The Observer, AMWatch and elsewhere.
In 2001, Rachel's personal finance book Kickstart Your Money was published by John Wiley & Sons.View full Profile
No comments yet