A survey of Danish financial organisations, including several pension providers, has found that geopolitics and cyber threats are the “top concerns” of financial organisations.

The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority’s (FSA) Financial companies’ perceptions of key risks survey, which was sent to 40 organisations and answered by 35 in February, found respondents rated cyber threats and geopolitical events as both most likely and most difficult to manage.

Cyber threats remained the primary source of concern; 94 per cent of the 35 companies cited it as the risk with the greatest impact on financial stability over the next three years, compared to 93 per cent last year. This is followed by geopolitical issues, which concerned 91 per cent of companies – an increase from last year.

Companies highlighted the Ukraine crisis, Russia's hybrid war, unrest in the Middle East and the new US administration as reasons for increased concern.

Pension companies that were sent the survey include ATP, AkademikerPension, Danica, IndustriensPension, Pensam, PensionsDanmark, PFA Pension, PKA, Sampension and Velliv.

Commenting, FSA economic secretariat head, Niki Saabye, said: "Just like last year, geopolitical conditions and cyber threats are the biggest risks to financial stability in Denmark according to companies. And compared to last year, geopolitical threats are now almost as high on the list of concerns as cyber threats."

As a result of these threats, Saabye explained that the “cyber threat is high on our supervisory agenda”.

“We are currently conducting the second round of our cyber stress test while scaling up our supervision to the new Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) rules. In relation to geopolitics, we are discussing with companies how they specifically see the risks and what measures they are taking to deal with them," Saabye explained.

Furthermore, half of companies believe that the risk of a negative shock to the financial system has increased over the past six months, while less than 10 per cent believe that the probability has decreased.

In general, however, companies remained confident that the Danish financial system will remain stable in the coming years. More specifically, 82 per cent stated that they have a high or very high degree of confidence that the financial system will remain stable over the next three years.

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