Sustainable investments

SEB is one of the largest institutional investors in the Nordic region. As an asset manager, we have high ambitions to contribute to sustainable development by investing in companies and other assets that can contribute to the transition to a more sustainable economy.

SEB's fund company Investment Management AB and SEB Life & Pension have comprehensive sustainability policies that are applied to all investments.

Our offering covers a broad variety of products and services, ranging from funds managed by SEB Investment Management (the fund company) and external funds, to equities and certificates, discretionary portfolio management, green savings accounts as well as pension services. We integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into the investment processes.

SEB aims to increase the share of funds that have sustainable investments as its objective. This includes SEB's entire fund offering, that is funds managed by SEB Investment Management as well as externally managed funds. The ambition forms part of SEB's Sustainability Activity Index.
SEB Ambitions and goals.

Sustainability in SEB’s fund company

SEB Investment Management invests in companies that actively manage environmental, social and governance factors in their operations and aims to identify companies that work to solve the global sustainability challenges, for example by investing in line with the UN SDGs. A proprietary sustainability model (SIMS-S) assigns a sustainability rating to a potential investment.

The investment strategies are based on the inclusion of companies that perform well in sustainability or have well-defined transition plans, exclusion of sectors or companies that do not abide by our fund company’s sustainability criteria and continuous engagement with the companies in which it invests.

SEB Investment Management has a broad offering of so-called Article 8 and 9 funds, classified according to the EU regulation SFDR (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation). During 2022, the fund company further strengthened the offering of funds with sustainability as an objective, Article 9 funds. At year-end 2022, 90 per cent of the product offering was classified as Article 8 or 9, according to the SFDR-regulation

The fund company offers several impact investments products, such as SEB’s Microfinance Funds.
SEB Microfinance Funds
Sustainability in SEB Investment Management

Signatory to PRI

The UN supported initiative Principles for Responsible Investments (PRI), which SEB signed in 2008, works to understand the investment implications of ESG factors and to support its signatories in incorporating these factors into investment and ownership decisions.

Sustainability in SEB Life & Pension

At SEB Life and Pension, sustainability is integrated into the investment analysis, which means that we evaluate the investment's impact on the environment, people and society. We analyse risks and opportunities from a sustainability perspective before we make an investment decision. Our investment model also includes SEB's policies and values as well as international guidelines and conventions.
SEB Life & Pension works with inclusion, exclusion and engagement (see above). To be able to make a bigger impact, SEB Life & Pension operates closely with the fund company.
Sustainability in SEB Life & Pension (in Swedish).

Evaluation of external funds

SEB offers funds that are managed by external parties (external funds) and that are evaluated by a special fund analysis team at SEB. The sustainability evaluation is integrated in the entire decision-making process, both in the selection of external funds and in the monitoring of selected managers.
All external fund companies are required to sign the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). By the end of 2022, 100 per cent of these companies had signed the PRI.