Case study: How Handelsbanken works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices

Stakeholder identification and consultation

Please describe which stakeholders (or groups/ types of stakeholders) you have identified, consulted, engaged, collaborated or partnered with for the purpose of implementing the Principles and improving your bank’s impacts. This should include a high-level overview of how your bank has identified relevant stakeholders, what issues were addressed/results achieved and how they fed into the action planning process.

Mapping and understanding a company’s value chain is vital within the sustainability context, especially for double materiality under the CSRD. This assessment highlights impacts, risks, and opportunities originating upstream, downstream, and from internal operations, as well as the effects on the company’s stakeholders.

Handelsbanken’s key stakeholders include customers, co-workers, owners and investors, trade unions, and the broader society, including special interest groups, public authorities, and legislators. These stakeholders have been identified based on their significant influence on or from the bank’s activities. Handelsbanken also maintains ongoing dialogue with other stakeholders, such as equity research analysts, trade associations, sustainability analysts, non-profit organisations, international organisations, municipalities and regions, suppliers, press and media, and students and educational establishments, including schools and universities.

How did Handelsbanken work with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities?

In its 2024 PRB Responsible Banking Progress Statement Handelsbanken reports that it works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities as follows:

Handelsbanken has integrated sustainability as a natural part of its operations for a long time, focusing on long-term responsibility and close customer relationships.

The bank’s strategy incorporates sustainability into a decentralized working method with a focus on risk mitigation and a long-term approach to customer relationships. This includes providing lending, investment, and advisory services that are tailored to customers’ sustainability requirements.

The bank’s ambition is to make sure that its operations can fully support its customers in their transition to a greener society and the climate targets of its home markets and the EU. The bank aims to provide capital and liquidity to meet customers’ funding needs and to offer products, services, and advisory services that enable a sustainable transition. Handelsbanken will continue to enhance its ability to integrate sustainability into all customer meetings, regardless of where and how its customers choose to meet Handelsbanken.

Handelsbanken continues to make progress in advisory services and will focus on enhancing customers’ financial literacy. Webinars and customer events were arranged on this subject in 2024. In 2025, Handelsbanken intends to further increase advisors’ knowledge of the subject and publish additional information for customers. As a financial institution, Handelsbanken can influence its customers’ business decisions, including how they approach the transition to net-zero emissions. The bank has access to numerous tools, such as advisory services, training, and incentives linked to loan terms.

UN Principles for Responsible Banking: Accelerating a positive global transition for people and the planet

With over 300 signatory banks representing almost half of the global banking industry, the Principles for Responsible Banking are the world’s foremost sustainable banking framework. Through these Principles, the banking community takes action to align core strategies, decision-making, lending and investment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and international agreements such as the Paris Climate Agreement.

FBRH Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) Assurance:

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The combination of all the above empowers FBRH to provide first class Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) assurance services.

References:

This case study is based on published information by Handelsbanken, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://vp292.alertir.com/sites/default/files/report/prb_responsible-banking-progress-statement_2024_0.pdf

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