Danica Pension, the pensions arm of Danske Bank, has reported a 7% increase in pension contributions within its Danish business in the first nine months of this year, but a fall in contributions garnered in other Nordic countries.

Posting its group financial results for January to September, the commercial pensions provider said its pre-tax profit had more than doubled in the period to DKK1.42bn (€191m) from DKK606m in the same period last year.

Contributions within Denmark rose to DKK14.8bn in the nine-month period, from DKK13.9bn a year earlier, while overall contributions climbed only slightly to DKK20.3bn from DKK20bn.

Meanwhile, contributions in foreign business fell to DKK5.6bn from DKK6.1bn – with Swedish contributions totalling DKK4.3bn and those in Norway coming to DKK1.3bn.

Explaining the fall, Per Klitgård, chief executive at Danica Pension, said: “In 2013, we entered into some extraordinarily large agreements in both Norway and Sweden.

“Contributions rose strongly because of this at 26% last year, and so this year we are seeing a fall in contributions in both countries.”

The rise in contributions within Denmark was mainly due to Danica Pension’s cooperation with its parent Danske Bank, with contributions coming in via this channel rising by 25% to DKK3.3bn in the first three quarters.

The rise in pre-tax profit was partly due to the fact Danica Pension had been able to book the whole risk allowance for all four interest rate groups because of the positive investment result in its traditional with-profits pensions business.

The fall in market interest rates over the first nine months contributed to profits on bond investments, which had particularly benefited customers with traditional pensions, Danica said.

The return on traditional pensions rose to 10% between January and September this year, from a loss of 0.1% in the same period last year.

Group total assets rose to DKK353bn at the end of September from DKK324bn at the same point in 2013.

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