Dutch pension fund ABP's U.S. state bonds dropped by €10 billion in six months
The value of ABP’s United States government bonds dropped by €10 billion in six months, starting when president Donald Trump imposed his import tariffs across the globe, NOS reports from the civil servants’ pension fund’s most recent investment overview. It is unclear whether the largest Dutch pension fund is dumping American state bonds or whether the bonds just lost that much value.
At the end of March 2025, ABP’s books showed over €29 billion in U.S. government bonds. At the end of September, that had dropped to €19 billion, a reduction of over a third. In that same period, ABP increased its loans to the Netherlands and Germany, taking additional €3 billion in Dutch government bonds and over €6 billion in German state bonds.
Experts told NOS that this rapid reduction speaks volumes about the lack of confidence in U.S. financial stability. In an interview with Fox News this week, Trump threatened “major retaliation” if European countries sold American stocks or bonds.
Whether ABP is deliberately withdrawing from the U.S. or whether the loaned amount has become less valuable is unclear. Rising interest rates on government bonds can depress the value, according to the broadcaster. The transition to the new Dutch pension system could also play a role. The new system allows pension funds to invest more riskily, and government bonds are typically seen as a safe choice.
But according to Bas Werker, a professor of pensions and affiliated with the pension think tank Netspar, higher interest rates didn’t play a major role in this case. Bond yields rose sharply after Trump announced his import tariffs in April 2025, but that increase has almost completely disappeared. So this would only partially explain the much lower amount of U.S. bonds on ABP’s books.
Jacintha van Bijnen of the pension advisor AON also doesn’t think that the new pension system played a role. “If you swap American bonds for European bonds, you’re not actually disposing of bonds.
Pim Zomerdijk of the investment advisor Sprenkels thinks that deliberate policy at ABP is behind the decrease. The pension fund is either not buying new U.S. government bonds or is actively selling them. “Trump’s unpredictability, and more broadly the increasing geopolitical uncertainty, are leading pension funds to examine their financial and non-financial resilience more critically than before,” he said.
The pension fund itself declined to comment. An ABP spokesperson told NOS that they could not comment on recent transactions or the investment strategy so as not to “harm the interests of our participants.” The spokesperson did say that ABP was seeking stability to invest and protect pension money effectively. “That’s what our investment mix is geared towards.”
Under the Trump administration, government spending has risen, and the national debt is rising. This is fueling doubts about America’s ability to repay that debt. A high debt burden isn’t a problem as long as enough countries, investors, and individuals are willing to hold dollars. But Trump’s import tariffs are putting pressure on trade with other countries, and since his second term as president, the dollar’s value has fallen by over 10 percent.
This week, two Danish pension funds announced that they sold their U.S. government bonds. A Greenland pension fund also said it wanted to withdraw investments from the U.S. in response to Trump’s threats to annex Greenland.
