PFA reports a record-high return and continued growth in 2019

PFA generated a return in 2019 at the amount of DKK 57.6 billion and welcomed 725 new corporate and organisational customers. The new strategy which focuses on responsibility and profitability will help PFA make its way to pole position when it comes to sustainability and creating better balanced insurance operations.

In 2019, PFA’s customers received a total return on their savings at the amount of DKK 57.6 billion. This is a historically high return for PFA in a year when the financial markets experienced handsome increases across all asset classes. Consequently, PFA’s customers received a return of up to 19.0 per cent.

“2019 developed into an extraordinarily profitable year in the financial markets, which also benefited the pension savers. This was led by large equity increases, in particular, but also unlisted investments, which, today, forms a strong basis for the customers’ savings with PFA, contributed positively. The previous years' large value increase in the customers’ deposits is very gratifying at a time of uncertainty about how long the upturn on the financial markets will be able to continue,” Allan Polack, Group CEO of PFA, says.

The 2019 return winds up a golden decade during which a customer with the recommended investment profile has obtained an accumulated return of 130 per cent since the implementation of PFA Plus. This means more than a twofold increase of the savings merely owing to the return during the latest 10 years.

Market leader and still growing

PFA’s solid growth in regular payments continued in 2019 and was up by 5.2 per cent. During the year, PFA welcomed 725 new corporate and organisational customers, whereas only 66 left PFA. The overall customer funds increased by DKK 67 billion to DKK 560 billion. Among other things, the payments made through Letpension increased by 28 per cent. Letpension covers a number of financial institutions that offer PFA’s pension and insurance solutions to their customers.

The insurance result for 2019 was DKK 340 million, whereas the pre-tax result was DKK 301 million. The result meets the expectations and, overall, it is acceptable despite the adverse result on health and accident insurance. The customers’ share of the result was DKK 289 million, which will be transferred to PFA CustomerCapital, which is PFA’s model for sharing profit and risk with its customers. Add to this investment returns etc. worth DKK 138 million as well as an outlay from equity for the year amounting to DKK 124 million so that the total amount transferred to PFA CustomerCapital comes to DKK 551 million of the results for the year.

“We are very pleased that the customers continue to actively select us and that we are able to continue our growth in a mature market. Our business model, our strong value offers to the customers, our good reputation and our collaboration with business partners all together form a strong combination which makes us an attractive pension supplier for both large and small companies,” Allan Polack says.

PFA still holds its position as Denmark’s largest commercial pension company and continued during 2019 to expand its offers to the customers. For example, at the turn of the year, PFA’s customers gained access to attractive non-life insurance through a strategic partnership with LB Forsikring.

PFA’s expenses per insured amounted to DKK 699, which is on the same level as in 2018. Thus, PFA is still the commercial company in Denmark with the lowest expenses per insured.

Ambitious turnaround plan for health and accident insurance is in progress

In 2019, PFA paid out approximately DKK 3.3 billion to approximately 91,000 dependants and customers who were diagnosed with a critical illness, whose occupational capacity was reduced, or who needed treatment or surgery through PFA Health Insurance. The constantly increasing draw on insurance at PFA is a principal factor to the result on health and accident insurance ending with a loss of DKK 2.27 billion in 2019.

The loss on insurance operations led to the implementation of a comprehensive turnaround plan to eliminate the loss and achieve a better balance. The plan was integrated during 2019 and will remain a focus area in 2020.

“The loss is of course very dissatisfying. This is the reason why we begun a major restructuring of the insurance operations in 2019 and ramped up the resources. The goal is a better balance, and, therefore, the turnaround plan will involve teams across the organisation. We are slowly beginning to see the first improvements, but we have a long haul in front of us before it is fixed. This is a top priority,” Allan Polack says.

New responsibility-centred strategy

PFA’s 2019 annual report brings the PFA Strategy2020 to an end. The strategy will be replaced by a new strategy named “Commercial Responsibility 2023”.

“Commercial Responsibility 2023” is based on PFA’s notion of commercial value creation and responsibility being each other’s preconditions. The strategy ensures that PFA can continue expanding its leading position among the pension companies by meeting the three primary objectives: (1) Best at generating sustainable returns (2) The highest customer loyalty in the market (3) Solid foundation and profitable growth.

“Holding the leading position among pension companies requires that a strong commercial focus goes hand in hand with responsibility. We want to generate a profitable growth and live up to our purpose of ensuring the good life for our customers in the future. With responsibility being one of PFA’s core values, and witnessing the surrounding world’s increased expectations, we find that corporate responsibility is a key element in our business operations. That is why our strategy is called Commercial Responsibility 2023,” Allan Polack says.

Central to the strategy is a continued escalating focus on responsibility in PFA's investments. Among other things, this is seen through the launch of a new climate-friendly pension product PFA Climate Plus, which determinedly supports the reduction of CO2 emissions. Another thing is to improve the balance in the claims performance of the individual company.

Read more about “Commercial Responsibility 2023” in the 2019 annual report or via the link below. At present, the report is available in Danish only. The report will be available in English end-February 2020.

Information

During the first six months of 2019, data error has been established in connection with switch of data source for calculation of health and accident insurance provisions as well as market rate insurance provisions. Consequently, it led to a change of the 2018 comparative figures. A summary of the completed changes is available in the annual report.

Further information

Kristian Lund Pedersen, Chief Press Officer, klp@pfa.dk, (+45) 39 17 58 79