Corporate social responsibility 2020 - Flipbook - Page 10
INDUSTRIENS PENSIONSFORSIKRING A/S
RAPPORT OM SAMFUNDSANSVAR 2020
principles such as human rights and workers’
rights. Furthermore, such countries often have
issues with corruption, bribery and respect for
the environment and climate. These countries
include Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the Democratic
Republic of Congo. We also do not invest in
government bonds issued by countries that are
subject to EU or UN sanctions, for example
Myanmar and Syria.
The decision on which countries to exclude is
based on a ranking of all countries in the world
measured in terms of their degree of compliance
with principles that are relevant for Industriens
Pension’s investment policy. The ranking is
carried out by Sustainalytics, an external partner
that uses data from reliable and accepted
sources such the World Bank, UN bodies and
the ILO to rate all countries in the world by giving
them a score broken down by a large number of
indicators.
Excluding certain countries from our investment
universe concerns only investments in
government bonds, but we do not exclude all
projects or companies in the country in question.
Instead, we follow our usual procedure for
specific assessments of the climate and
environmental impact, social aspects and
corporate governance aspects of an investment.
This follows the principles of Denmark’s foreign
and development policy.
Corporate governance
Corporate governance is an important area in
Industriens Pension’s active ownership, even at
a time when climate is highest on many
agendas.
What matters is that there is confidence in the
company from investors and the surrounding
community and that there is a long-term return.
Consequently, corporate governance is an
integral part of our ongoing dialogue with
companies in which investors have significant
influence.
RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT
resource-intensive to review. We cooperate with
the sector on how to improve the information
and increase transparency.
An example of this is Danske Bank, which was
involved in a large-scale money-laundering
scheme through the bank’s branch in Estonia
from 2007 to 2015. The bank’s management
ignored warnings and did not put a stop to the
illegal transactions. After the revelations, the
case led to an internal investigation in which a
number of flaws in the bank’s governance
structure were identified. Industriens Pension
discussed the case at meetings with the
chairman of the Board of Directors of Danske
Bank, and this only happens in very serious
situations. At subsequent meetings with Danske
Bank, as a separate item on the agenda,
Industriens Pension regularly followed up on
how the bank has remedied the situation and
established structures to prevent something
similar from happening again. Furthermore, the
bank has taken initiative to give Industriens
Pension separate briefings about the situation.
What we focus on
For many years, Industriens Pension has
focused on workers’ rights and on reducing
inequality. We will continue this focus, and set
specific goals for these areas.
We also want to strengthen collaboration
against terrorism and money laundering in the
pension sector by facilitating access to
information about new EU sanctions against
countries and companies in which we do not
invest because they contribute to terrorism or
money laundering. Currently, such information
can be held in non-transparent materials that are
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