Case study: How Nykredit identifies and works on strategic business opportunities to increase positive and reduce negative impacts

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.

Stakeholder Identification and Engagement
Nykredit is among Denmark’s largest lenders, and that position comes with responsibilities. As a prominent player in society, Nykredit maintains ongoing dialogue with relevant stakeholders, including business and trade organizations, NGOs, public authorities, politicians, and key market participants. These conversations focus on key topics such as climate and sustainability, regional development and growth across Denmark, lending to specific population groups, equal pay, diversity, and inclusion. Through engagement with these groups, Nykredit ensures its efforts align with societal expectations and support a sustainable future. 

Coordination across Nykredit
Continuous coordination occurs throughout Nykredit’s organization and management to communicate the views and interests of relevant stakeholders. Nykredit has established clear internal procedures for managing new or upcoming regulations, aiming to ensure a well-defined division of responsibilities across the organization. This process facilitates timely and appropriate involvement of different management levels. Coordination is maintained through formal forums within the organization and ongoing collaboration among relevant units.

This coordinated approach enables Nykredit to adapt effectively to new political proposals, initiatives, guidelines, and recommendations from authorities, as well as requests from key partners.

For a comprehensive overview of Nykredit’s approach, organisational structure, and key stakeholders, please refer to its Sustainability Statement 2024.

How did Nykredit identify and work on strategic business opportunities to increase positive and reduce negative impacts?

In its 2024 PRB Responsible Banking Progress Statement Nykredit reports that it identified and worked on strategic business opportunities to increase positive and reduce negative impacts as follows:

Climate Transition Plan
Key initiatives within Nykredit’s Climate Transition Plan toward 2030 are outlined in its Sustainability Statement 2024. Collectively, these actions enable Nykredit to fulfill its role in achieving both its own and society’s ambitious climate goals. The success of most of Nykredit’s climate targets relies heavily on its customers, who are funded and invested in by Nykredit, reducing their own carbon emissions.

The actions in the Climate Transition Plan are organized into four main categories:

• Value Propositions: Nykredit offers loans and investments that support the green transition, providing green benefits that motivate customers to adopt environmentally friendly choices. Several of these value propositions are reinforced with cash vouchers from Forenet Kredit.
• Policies and Terms: Nykredit develops policies, pricing, and product terms that reflect its ambitions and climate-related risks.
• Involvement: Nykredit engages proactively with borrowers to discuss their green transition strategies and financing needs. Nykredit also takes an active ownership role in the companies it invests in.
• Stakeholders and Partnerships: Nykredit collaborates with industry organizations, NGOs, authorities, and other stakeholders to develop solutions and initiatives that promote climate change mitigation.

Taxonomy Regulation
Since 2021, Nykredit has reported on the share of financing activities—through loans and investments—that qualify as eligible under the Taxonomy Regulation (“taxonomy eligibility”). From 2023 onward, Nykredit has also reported on the proportion of activities financed by the Group that are aligned with the taxonomy (“taxonomy aligned”). This alignment reporting specifically pertains to Nykredit’s two climate targets.

The primary KPI in financial institutions’ taxonomy reporting is the Green Asset Ratio (GAR), which measures the percentage of Nykredit’s total assets that meet the taxonomy’s criteria for sustainable economic activities. Nykredit’s most recent and relevant information is detailed in its Sustainability Statement 2024.

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:

First class PRB assurance services: The result of solid, hands-on ESG/ Sustainability experience

• • • FBRH is a GRI Certified Training Partner (Global), ISEP Training Centre and a member of CPD.
    • FBRH builds trust. Over 200 reviews from top professionals from around the world demonstrate our ability to build strong, trusting business relationships.
    • FBRH possesses a unique skill set that combines ESG/sustainability certified training, experience in advisory services and report preparation, and ESG/sustainability report assurance.

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 Nykredit, 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://www.nykredit.com/samfundsansvar/rapportering/

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