SEB has a strong ambition to accelerate the pace towards a sustainable and prosperous future for people, businesses and society. By offering responsible advice, innovative and sustainable financing and investment solutions, we support our customers on their transition journeys. We aim for a common understanding of the way forward and we are convinced that companies integrating environmental, social and governance aspects into their strategy and operations are more successful in the longer term. SEB wants to be a leading catalyst in the transition.
In 2016, SEB developed its first Green Bond Framework. In early 2022, the framework was updated to be more inclusive, expanding the number of categories and broadly aligning definitions with the substantial contribution part of the technical screening criteria of the EU Taxonomy as of December 2021. Backed by SEB’s sustainability strategy, the Corporate Sustainability Policy, the Environmental Policy and accompanying sector policies, SEB’s Green Bond Framework ensures that its green bonds are used for low-carbon and climate resilient projects and investments, by financing green loans.
Green bond investor reports
SEB publishes a Green bond investor report to investors annually containing (i) information on issued green bonds, (ii) a description of the allocation of proceeds for each category of eligible green loans (including project examples where customer approval for publication has been obtained) and (iii) the total amount of disbursed funds. SEB encourages its customers to perform impact reporting and intends to include details of such customer impact reporting in the Green bond investor report where applicable.
SEB's Green Bond Framework 2022
In January 2022, SEB updated its green bond framework to align certain categories of eligible green assets with the EU Taxonomy. The framework is aligned with the Green Bond Principles by International Capital Markets Association (ICMA).
SEB has received a second opinion from Cicero Shades of Green on the bank's Green Bond Framework.