Case study: How Nordea 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.

Nordea is dedicated to fostering and maintaining strong, trusted relationships with its stakeholders. The bank actively seeks insights into their expectations and responds promptly with appropriate actions and engagement. Nordea’s six primary stakeholder groups are customers, employees, investors, suppliers, supervisory authorities, and the broader society.

Nordea maintains ongoing engagement with all key stakeholder groups, with particular focus on customers and investee companies, to understand the sustainability challenges and opportunities they encounter in their respective environments. This approach enables Nordea to address significant sustainability issues and effectively implement its sustainability commitments. Nordea’s strategy emphasizes dialogue over disengagement. Key engagement activities include collecting customer preferences through surveys (e.g., post-advisory), active ownership engagement such as voting and discussions with investee companies, customer involvement on climate matters (LC&I customers), monitoring ESG ratings, employee engagement via People Pulse surveys, and supplier assessments related to sustainability impacts.

Additionally, Nordea conducts targeted initiatives to support vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, through support meetings to provide information and gather feedback. The bank also offers dedicated senior customer service lines in Norway and Finland for older clients. Furthermore, Nordea engages with customers on debt management by providing clear communication across multiple channels and monitoring feedback to mitigate risks and promote financial well-being.

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

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

Nordea believes that proactive engagement with its customers and supporting their transition through financing and other financial services is an effective way to accelerate the shift toward a low-carbon economy. Nordea’s initiatives include enhancing customer experience by gathering feedback to address complaints, offering training in local communities to promote financial well-being and assist customers with limited digital skills, supporting customers in their net-zero transition planning, assessing their sustainability preferences, expanding Nordea’s Sustainable Selection offerings, and refining industry credit policies to address sector-specific topics.

Through ESG-focused product offerings, Nordea promotes sustainable practices and actively collaborates with customers and investees, which is central to its sustainability strategy and objectives. These products enable the integration of sustainability into Nordea’s funding and liquidity strategies, including sustainability-related financing activities. Over recent years, demand for Nordea’s sustainability solutions has significantly increased—driven by customer interest and the expansion of Nordea’s product range, advisory services, and engagement efforts. With extensive expertise in sustainability-linked and green lending, ESG-focused investment products, and active ownership, Nordea is well-positioned to continue supporting the transition of its customers and investee companies toward a sustainable future.

Nordea is committed to developing products and solutions that support its transition goals, enabling it to amplify positive impacts through financing sustainable activities while reducing negative impacts (financing the transition away from high-emitting activities). Through ongoing dialogue, Nordea encourages its customers to strengthen and refine their transition strategies, providing them with the necessary financing to facilitate their journey. These efforts align with Nordea’s 2025 commitments to facilitate over EUR 200 billion in sustainable financing and to ensure that 90% of its exposure to large corporate clients in climate-vulnerable sectors is backed by transition plans.

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 Nordea, 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.nordea.com/en/doc/nordea-principles-for-responsible-banking-2024.pdf

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