Our work with responsible banking

... the transition

Transition refers to a company’s increased activities towards climate-neutral and fair sustainable societal systems. This is steered by different goals, such as EU Green deal. For us as a bank we have decided to set up goals in line with the Paris Agreement.   

For our customers the transition comes with both challenges and opportunities:

• Companies might need to develop new products with sustainable focus. This can require investments and financial advice. 
• Our personal customers might want to invest in more energy efficient solutions for their homes.
• Large corporate customers could want to shift their energy mix from fossil fuels to renewables. 

All in all, it's a transition from how we run business today towards a better tomorrow. 

Banks will play a vital role in this transition by channeling investments and financing companies, guiding them towards sustainable pathways and business models. For us this means offering responsible advice, financing and solutions for all our customers. We have a 2030 target of reducing the emissions across our lending and investment portfolios by 40-50%. Reaching this goal is something we do together with our customers.
 

... active ownership

When we use the term active ownership we are talking about a strategy we use as a shareholder to engage in a company we have invested in to influence the company’s strategy and actions.  The method is often used in responsible investing to directly influence a company’s decisions and when working with corporate social responsibility. In essence it's about using the power we have as shareholders. 
Active ownership can generally be divided into two streams – engagement and voting – both equally important and interdependent on one another. Via engagement we can have regular meetings with the company and track progress against pre-defined engagement areas.

Voting is how we actively engage in general meetings of investee companies in the funds managed by us. It works like this: 

• We manage equity shares for our customers. 
• These shares gives us ownership and the right to vote at those companies’ AGM. 
• We use that right in over 95% of all the votable meetings.  
• If enough shareholders say yes to the same suggestion, it gets approved at the AGM and implemented. 
• Last year we voted 98% of the times where a climate proposal was on the meeting agenda. A climate proposal can for example be a yes or no to a transition plan or a request to improve reporting.

Explore even more about our Active ownership team - the people that is behind the actions. 

... sustainable finance

The term sustainable finance is a form of financing that takes environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into account when setting criteria for the funding.  
It can be a loan for investing in solar-panels, building energy-efficient systems or project money to shift a whole factory to reduce its carbon emissions.

To be able to offer our customers sustainable financing solutions we have set up frameworks that build on recognised standards within the financial sector. The Nordea green funding and SSL funding frameworks are the foundation for our further work with this.  By 2025 Nordea’s target is to have facilitated more than 200bn euros in sustainable financing. At the end of 2023 we had already reached 135bn Euros. 

We also facilitate financing for other purposes than the sustainable transition.