Swedbank: Cutting Ties With Fossil Fuel Financing

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Swedbank's Stockholm HQ
Swedbank’s fossil lending has dropped 90% and its new policy bans loans to most fossil fuel companies. Will other Nordic banks follow this green path?

It’s no secret that banks and the fossil fuel industry have close-knit ties.

Banks are among the biggest financiers of fossil fuels, directly contributing to climate change and the harm it has on wildlife and communities as a result.

Introducing Swedbank

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Based in Stockholm, Nordic-Baltic banking group Swedbank boasts more than 3.8 million private customers in Sweden, and a further 3.6 million across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Employing a staff of 17,000, the group prioritises sustainability as a core part of its business strategy.

Johanna Fager Wettergren, Head of Group Sustainability, says: “We maintain our momentum in working for a long-term socially and environmentally sustainable society by strengthening and developing our customer offering.”

Johanna Fager Wettergren, Head of Group Sustainability at Swedbank

How is Swedbank moving away from fossil fuels?

In response to protests by thousands of activists, Swedbank has ceased lending to oil companies.

“The banks must stop financing the hunt for more fossil fuels, it completely undermines the climate transition,” says Jakob König, Head of the Fair Finance Guide.

With this move, Swedbank joins Handelsbanken as one of the few global banks that have ceased lending to oil companies, a decision Handelsbanken made two years prior.

Danish banking giant Danske Bank also declared an end to fossil fuel financing in 2023.

Before this shift, the bank reported that 99.9% of its carbon footprint was attributable to financed emissions.

Jakob König, Head of Fair Finance Guide

However, Fair Finance Guide says Danske Bank, alongside SEB and Nordea, continues to “pump billions into the fossil fuel industry, despite the banks’ climate promises”.

“It is gratifying that another major Swedish bank has become an international role model when it comes to sustainable financing,” says Karin Lexén, Secretary General at Swedish Society For Nature Conservation.

“Now more must follow suit and take responsibility, because there are still large fossil fuel companies that receive loans to continue operations that exacerbate the climate crisis.”

Karin Lexén, Secretary General at Swedish Society For Nature Conservation

She adds: “The banks have long responded to criticism by saying that they are helping the oil companies to adjust. But the companies are continuing in the completely wrong direction by increasing their extraction instead of phasing it out. 

“Now the banks must stop the loans just as Handelsbanken and Swedbank have done.”

The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation’s report says: “Since the Paris Agreement, Swedbank has provided US$3.6bn in finance to fossil fuel companies.

“Swedbank has almost completely stopped giving new loans since the second half of 2021.

“In the last two years, Swedbank has reduced its fossil fuel finance by 90%, compared with the two-year period before.”

Swedbank's fossil fuel relationship. Credit: Swedish Society for Nature Conservation

The stance of other major banks

Swedish Society for Nature Conservation’s report unearths “an increasing divide in the Nordic banks’ approach to fossil fuels.”

The report says: “Swedbank has reduced its fossil financing drastically and Danske Bank has made a significant decrease. 

“Nordea, SEB and DNB have only reduced the total value of new loans by 1% to 5%.

“Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the nine Nordic banks have in total provided US$73.4bn in loans and underwriting to fossil fuel companies.”

Swedish banks' fossil fuel lending. Credit: Fair Finance Guide

SEB says between 2019 and 2024, it has reduced its credit exposure towards upstream oil and gas activities by more than 75%. 

As well as this, the bank has, by working with energy companies, reduced the average fossil share in its energy portfolio from 59% in 2019 to 30% in 2024.

The bank says: “Fossil fuels currently make up a significant part of the global energy systems. The greatest positive impact on the climate can be achieved by working together with our customers and supporting them in their transition. 

“We continue to actively collaborate with our customers to support an orderly transition in line with the Paris Agreement.”


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