Danish Pension Fund To Dump All US Treasuries Citing 'Rising Credit Risk': Executive Says America's Finances Are No Longer 'Sustainable'

A Danish pension fund is preparing to sell its entire holding of U.S. Treasury securities by the end of January, citing concerns about credit risk tied to fiscal and political developments in the country.

‘Rising Credit Risk’ Under Trump

AkademikerPension, a member-owned pension fund for academics in Denmark, with $25 billion in assets under management, has announced that it will be disposing of all of its U.S. government debt holdings by the end of this month.

The fund’s Chief Investment Officer, Anders Schelde, expressed concerns regarding the deteriorating quality of U.S. government bonds, saying that in the long-run, “US government finances are not sustainable,” while speaking to Bloomberg on Tuesday.

Schelde also cited “rising credit risk” due to Trump’s policies, while noting that his fund held about $100 million worth of U.S. Treasuries at the end of 2025. According to Schelde, risk and liquidity management are currently the only reasons to maintain exposure to treasuries. “We decided that we can find [an] alternative to that,” he said.

Schelde told Benzinga that this decision is not directly related to the ongoing rift between the United States and Denmark, “but of course that didn’t make it more difficult to take the decision,” he said.

He said that going forward, the fund will use “cash USD, short-dated agency debt,” and other similar instruments instead of U.S. Treasuries.

A Risk For US Government Bonds And The Dollar

According to Economist Mohamed El-Erian, one of the key vulnerabilities facing U.S. government bonds and the dollar is that much of the world is already “overweight” on them.

As a result, he finds headlines like this to be problematic, even though the Danish fund held minimal U.S. Treasuries, at $100 million, relative to the Treasury market’s average daily volumes at over $1 trillion.

Precious metals such as gold and silver are on an unstoppable rally, touching new all-time highs every few days, as investors continue to rotate capital out of U.S. Treasuries and Dollar-denominated assets, in favor of the safe-haven metals.

The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD), which offers investors exposure to gold, was up 3.78% on Tuesday, closing at $437.23, while the iShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF (BATS:GOVT) was down 0.33% during the day.

The SPDR Gold Trust scores high on Momentum in Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings, with a favorable price trend in the short, medium and long terms.

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