ESG Viewpoint:
Nordea Bank
# RepRisk interviews Veronica Palmgren, Head of ESG Analysis in Group Sustainability at Nordea Bank Abp
# June 2021
1. RepRisk: Please provide some insight into your specific role at Nordea Bank Abp (Nordea) and explain the work that you and your team do.
Veronica Palmgren: I work in Group Sustainability at Nordea, where I head an ESG Analysis team dedicated to supporting the financing process for large corporate customers. In this work, we assess a broad range of ESG related risks that may impact the bank’s financing – essentially providing an ESG risk view based on our analysis. This risk view is an integral part of the financing process – and RepRisk risk metrics are part of our analysis.
2. RR: Nordea has been a client of RepRisk for ten years. How do you and your team use RepRisk data in your day-to-day business?
VP: RepRisk is used to inform our ESG risk understanding in two ways. First, we seek information on various risks that companies may be subjected to, and assess the content, reliability, and impact of that information. Second, due to the broad coverage of the RepRisk ESG Risk Platform, we also note whether there is an absence of risk information and assess the implications of that. Essentially, it is a question of either finding some information and assessing it, or then assessing whether an absence of information is a positive confirmation of the lack of risks. RepRisk’s data is generally used as part of creating the broader risk picture of a company, and thus used in conjunction with other information.
3. RR: Nordea leverages ESG data for due diligence, screening, and monitoring of your lending portfolio of whosesale clients. Why did you choose data based on public information from media and stakeholder sources to support those processes instead of relying on an ESG checklist or company self-disclosures?