BankInvest: Best ESG Responsible Investor Denmark 2020

BankInvest has demonstrated wisdom and foresight over its 50-year history by focusing on sustainability to foster growth and create value for stakeholders. The mutual fund was founded with the ideals of a co-operative — and a mission to level the playing field of the Danish financial market, enabling smaller institutions to challenge market leaders in healthy competition. Bankinvest is owned by 38 banks and retail investing represents a core part of its business, along with a strong institutional division. It has appointed a Committee for Responsible Investments, vested with the decision-making power to exclude unsuitable companies from consideration. Portfolio candidates are vetted for ESG compliance at the pre-investment stage, then guided through active ownership stakes to push for the most responsible and sustainable operations possible. If an investee’s ESG performance should begin to falter, BankInvest addresses the issue through open dialogue with the company’s management team, by exercising AGM voting rights, or, as a last result, by shedding the shares. BankInvest has partnered with Sustainalytics to execute norm-based screening of portfolio investments against international standards for environmental protection, human rights, labour standards and business ethics. An MSCI ESG partnership, which provides BankInvest with specialised analysis of corporate ESG conditions, underscores its commitment to transparency and accountability, which also includes front running quarterly reporting on how BankInvest’s investment portfolios perform compared to its peers within ESG, CO2 and SDG metrics. The CFI.co judging panel is pleased to recognise a company with sustainability in its DNA, and declares BankInvest as the winner of the 2020 award for Best ESG Responsible Investor (Denmark).