Swedbank A

Environmental & Social Information • Feb 23, 2022

National Storage Mechanism | Additional information

RNS Number : 6016C

Swedbank AB

23 February 2022

Press release

23 February 2022

Swedbank's Annual and Sustainability Report 2021: Sustainability at the core of our business

Swedbank's Annual and Sustainability Report for 2021 has now been published. 

Swedbank continued to support customers during the ongoing pandemic and established sustainability as the core of our business strategy.

The 2021 result is the second best full year net profit in the bank's history. Income was higher, thanks to record-high net commission income. Expenses developed according to plan during 2021 and return on equity increased to 13.2 percent.  

"We maintained strong profitability as the pandemic continued in 2021 and intensified our business focus so that we can deliver on our strategy," says Jens Henriksson, President and CEO of Swedbank.

For the second consecutive year, Swedbank's sustainability work earned us a place on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. During the year, we continued to develop new solutions to help our corporate clients transition to sustainability. Swedbank acted as advisor when Nasdaq launched its Green Designations Framework enabling green labelling for equities.

"Our green business is growing, and during 2022, we aim to achieve a continued increase. On average, we originated two corporate green bonds per week for our clients during 2021. It is gratifying to see how we as a bank can contribute to sustainability in practice, such as by supporting our real estate clients as they look for new ways to become even more sustainable," says Jens Henriksson.

Swedbank has a market-leading position in mortgages on all our home markets - Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

In 2021, the green asset register increased considerably due to mortgage assets connected to energy-efficient properties being included, enabling the bank to issue three green bonds in EUR, USD and GBP. Swedbank now has green bonds with a total outstanding value of SEK 30.5 billion.

The bank's direct greenhouse gas emissions have decreased by 63% since 2019, primarily due to a decrease in business travel. During 2021, the bank decided to stop offering direct financing of unconventional fossil fuel production and exploration of new oil and gas fields. Since 2015, Swedbank's oil-related decommission portfolio has declined significantly, from SEK 23.5 billion to SEK 3.5 billion.

Swedbank is working to ensure that climate-related transition risks are taken into account in credit decisions. The Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) reporting in our Annual and Sustainability Report describes the potential financial impact of climate change on our business. We have also initiated a collaboration with the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) to identify additional physical climate risks.

Swedbank has in February 2022 joined the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), a worldwide collaboration of financial institutions aimed at enabling harmonized assessments and disclosures of greenhouse gas emissions that are financed by loans and investments.

"As part of our work to establish science-based carbon emission reduction targets, we have begun to measure our financed emissions, using PCAF's methodology. The bank is working to develop carbon emission reduction targets for various asset classes, with an initial focus on the real estate sector," says Head of Group Sustainability Fredrik Nilzén.

The Risk Management and Capital Adequacy Report and the ESG Factbook for 2021 have also been published today. Read the reports on www.swedbank.com/ir 

Contact:

Fredrik Nilzén, Head of Group Sustainability, Swedbank, telephone +46 76 773 19 26

Amanda Billner, Press Manager, Swedbank, telephone +46 73 045 11 68

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/6016C_1-2022-2-23.pdf

This disclosure contains information that Swedbank is obliged to make public pursuant to the Swedish Securities Markets Act (2007:528). The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person, on 23 February 2022, 14:00 CET.

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