Denmark Feeds World’s Biggest Home Debt Load as Caps Spurned

Denmark’s government has no plans to curtail private lending and is instead working on measures to help the world’s most indebted households maintain access to cheap credit.

While authorities in neighboring Norway and Sweden are probing ways to limit borrowing, Denmark says indebtedness is no threat because households can tap pensions and home equity if they get into trouble. Danes owe their creditors 310 percent of disposable incomes, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates. That’s almost double the level in Sweden, where the central bank has suggested imposing a 200 percent cap on debt to safeguard financial stability.