Danish pension provider, ATP, has announced plans to increase its members’ pensions by 4 per cent in January 2022.

The increase is the largest in ATP’s history and will result in a total spend of DKK 30.4bn.

It will apply to all of ATP’s 5.4 million members, both current and future pensioners, for the rest of their lives.

ATP said that the increase was possible due to several years of historically strong investment returns that have grown its financial reserves.

Currently, ATP pays out more than DKK 17bn a year to its members and this figure will rise by DKK 700m per year due to the provider’s Supervisory Board’s decision to increase payments by 4 per cent.

“It is great that ATP is continuing to deliver such strong results on the investment front,” commented ATP CEO, Bo Foged.

“Our financial results, particularly in the past three years, mean that we have the financial resources to increase payments by an unprecedented amount in the billions which will benefit all of our members.

“For almost 40 per cent of the pensioners here in Denmark, ATP Livslang Pension (Lifelong Pension) is their only pension supplement to the state pension, so this is an increase that will matter for many, many thousands of pensioners in Denmark for the rest of their lives.”

For an average 66-year-old pensioner, the increase means that their ATP pension will grow by around DKK 14,000 in total for the remainder of their estimated life expectancy.

“DKK 30bn is - even for a company the size of ATP - a lot of money,” Foged continued.

“But we can afford it since our returns have been so extremely good for several years and because our assets today amount to over DKK 900bn.

“It is our members’ money that we invest, and we are very aware of the trust Danes put in us.

“For ATP, it is about ensuring basic security for all pensioners, and therefore it is very satisfying for us to be able to increase the pensions so notably. Because it goes without saying that ATP’s members need to benefit when their payments to us grow so much in value.”

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