Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1942, Qupperneq 146

THE DANISH CREDIT ASSOCIATIONS
By Thorstein Thorsteinsson,
Managing Director of the Credit Association of Property Owners
on the Danish Islands.
THE organised mortgaging of real property in Denmark
is undertaken by the credit associations (Kreditforeninger)
which grant loans on the security of first mortgages, and
by the secondary mortgage associations (Hypothekforeninger)
which grant loans on the security of second mortgages. The
position of these associations in the national economy of the
country may be shown by a few figures (from 1940).
The national capital of Denmark was in 1940 roughly
29.000.000.000 Kroner, the part represented by real. property
amounting to 15.700.000.000 Kroner (on the basis of the
latest assessment values from 1936). The total mortgage debt
— not merely first and second mortgages — secured by this
property was in 1926 7.100.000.000 Kroner and may probably
be estimated at about 11.000.000.000 Kroner in 1940. Out of
this debt 5.100.000.000 Kroner are due to the credit associations
and 500.000.000 Kroner to the secondary mortgage associations,
making a total of 5.600.000.000 Kroner due to these institutions.
A few further figures will bring out the true proportions:
The total debt of the State and local authorities amounted to
2.600.000.000 Kroner, of which sum the bonded debt represented
1.500.000.000 Kroner. The total volume of bonds (credit asso-
ciation and secondary mortgage association, government and
local authority bonds) therefore amounted to a total of
7.100.000.000 Kroner. The paid up capital of limited liability
companies amounted to 2.200.000.000 Kroner, of which
700.000.000 Kroner were officially quoted on the stock-ex-
change. The national income of the 3.8 million inhabitants
amounted to 4.900.000.000 Kroner.
Even though the activities of the credit associations may
appear to show modest figures compared with conditions in bigger
countries they are, however, relatively speaking so remarkable
that they have frequently engaged the attention of foreign coun-
tries to the Danish system of real credit.