Norwegian ESG experts are surprised to learn of the new CEO's ties to tax havens. "Naturally, questions are being asked," says one professor.
In this situation it is imperative to act swiftly in strengthening the global community's ability to deal with the crisis, says Karl-Johan Nystedt, head of Public Sector & SSA Origination, who recently led a major deal on coronavirus relief arranged by SEB.
There has been enormous pressure on private investors to take on more risk, says Finace Professor Carsten Tanggaard, adding that the timing couldn't be worse now that equity markets are on their knees. "Now we get see what risk actually is," he says.
Building a quantifying model for tracking the net impact of more than 40 000 companies has been a massive exercise "for a bunch of math nerds who wanted to do more than just improve the world by talking about ESG”, says CEO and Founder of The Upright Project, but adds that next target is 100,000 companies."
A pandemic was not listed among the most important risks for this year in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report, although it has been named as one of the top risks in the survey in earlier years, notes Nordea Asset Management's Head of Responsible Investments.
The Swedish state buffer fund has assessed and considered the financial risks that alignment with the goals of the Paris Agreement may mean for the fund in practice.
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Swedish insurance and financial group Folksam has sold all of its equities in gambling companies in a move to make the portfolio more sustainable. Folksam has previously excluded other categories like tobacco and controversial weapons.
The Swedish Export Credit Agency will no longer invest in natural gas extraction in the Arctic, for example. Going forward, investments through the agency will happen in accordance with the targets set by the Paris agreement.
Asset manager Octopus Renewables is to invest GBP 350 million in new wind energy. OX2 will construct the first wind farm of 48 MW, to be built on the developer's home turf of Sweden. Octopus Renewables has its eyes on Scandinavia and intends to grab hold of the market.
Three of the biggest asset managers in Sweden have started a campaign to force listed companies to back up their carbon-emissions claims with a lot more data.
Even though formal credentials in ESG Investing could at some point become mandatory, a Finnish portfolio manager with an emerging market mandate from Danske Bank Wealth Management primarily saw the course in ESG investing he completed as a tool to strengthen his understanding of ESG topics.
With a doubling of jobs in stewardship teams and a quadrupling of jobs in ESG-related jobs in just three years, the Financial Times reports of a jobs bonanza in the asset management industry.
UK-based asset manager's exchange-traded tracking index provider Foxberry's sustainability consensus indices pass the billion-dollar mark because of inflows from the Nordics and strong investment performance. Foxberry hopes to reshape sustainability benchmarking.
The CEO of SSP Fonder in Stockholm is now leading a fund company that is striving to become fossil-free, but further regulation within sustainable finance is not on her list of priorities.
Norway’s EUR 1.0 trillion wealth fund wants the companies it invests in to step up their game on sustainability reporting.
A fund manager can run into liquidity constraints and tracking-error problems when managing an ESG portfolio, says Swedbank Robur Head Derivatives.
Campbell Fleming, the global head of distribution at investment company Aberdeen Standard Investments, is very critical of index fund managers. They take far too little responsibility for corporate governance, he says in an interview with a Swedish investors' newssite.
KLP and DNB plan a major joint investment in renewable energy, reports Norwegian business daily Dagens Næringsliv.
Pensiondanmark is the first pension company in Denmark to include audited ESG reporting in its year-end report. CEO Torben Möger Pedersen encourages other investors to do the same.
The Swedish asset manager is in dialogue with construction and development company Skanska about occupational safety after five people died in fatal accidents in its construction project in the past few years.
After attracting 15 percent of the total net inflows across the Swedish fund industry in 2019, SPP Fonder's CEO Åsa Wallenberg explains how to stay ahead in a competitive fund market.
With an ambition to modernize its corporate bond offering, Danske Bank Asset Management is making several changes to its fund range. The first spark of this plan was ignited by a Swedish institutional client nearly four years ago, head of fixed income and credits Andreas Dankel tells AMWatch.
Huge inflows into ESG funds are driving up prices for equities with green credentials.
Pensam will now measure its equity investments against a new climate index. This will reduce the portfolio's carbon footprint, but will also reduce the portfolio's risk, explains CEO Torsten Fels.
LB Forsikring has invested in the US-based asset manager's European social bond fund as the strategy nears its three-year track record. More investors are looking into social bond strategies, as they want to add more social criteria to their portfolios, says Columbia Threadneedle Head of Nordics and social bond fund manager.
