Swedbank

In terms of its approach towards impact management, Swedbank acknowledges that its financing activities have both positive and negative impacts and it identified and prioritised its impacts through an impact analysis based on the framework by the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB). The bank links the remuneration of its chief executive officer and executive committee to sustainability performance criteria. As a signatory of Women’s Empowerment Principles, Swedbank is committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment and discloses a target to achieve 40/60 gender balance in highest management levels and higher job grades as well as minimising the equal-pay gap by 2025.

As a member of the Net-Zero Asset Managers Initiative and Net-Zero Banking Alliance, Swedbank has set a target of net-zero financed emissions by 2050. It discloses absolute financed emissions in its mortgage and commercial property portfolios and discloses the underlying data quality. As a member of Climate Action 100+, Swedbank collectively engages with its investees on the topic of climate change. The bank discloses the aggregate amount and share of finance it devotes to climate solutions and specifies what these solutions are. As a signatory to the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge, the financial institution is committed to minimising its negative impacts on nature and biodiversity. It also publishes the monetary amount and share of its investments in nature- and biodiversity-related solutions.

The financial institution has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO core labour rights. It has a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, external individuals and communities to raise human rights complaints or concerns. The bank discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. Swedbank has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and discloses a global tax strategy. It discloses income tax payments for all its tax jurisdictions. Additionally, the financial institution discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements.

In terms of its approach to senior leadership accountability, while Swedbank’s Board discusses sustainability matters, it is unclear that the end responsibility for sustainability issues lies with it. The bank could also link the remuneration of its management team to sustainability performance criteria. Furthermore, women are underrepresented on the board of directors where only 4 out of 13 board members are women. Swedbank also has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions. The financial institution could disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. Swedbank has an opportunity to describe its engagement approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with clients and investees across its financing activities.

Swedbank could disclose interim emissions reduction targets at the group level, such as a 45% reduction in financed emissions by 2030. It could also identify key sectors or companies as priorities to engage with on climate issues, specifically on the alignment with the Paris Agreement. Additionally, the bank could align its financing for climate solutions with internationally recognised frameworks and set time-bound targets explicitly for them. No evidence was found regarding the financial institution’s approach to fossil fuels that spans across the fossil fuel value chain and financing activities, such as the amount or share of finance it directs towards fuels, or its stance on financing companies with new fossil fuel projects.

Swedbank has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its financing activities. It also discloses the ages of its management and board of directors but has an opportunity to disclose this information for each employee category. To provide transparency on financial inclusivity, Swedbank has an opportunity to disclose the amount of finance directed towards, for example, women-owned businesses, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or low-income developing countries.