At Danske Bank, we are now making it even easier for private and professional investors to get an overview of the companies and issuers that we have excluded from our investment products.

In future, investors can see a detailed list of the companies and issuers excluded from the investments in our individual portfolio management solutions and Danske Invest funds – for example because the company or issuer engages in business activities deemed harmful to society.

“It’s important for us that our customers can invest their savings on an informed basis. With our new approach, we’re at the forefront and can contribute to even greater transparency about our investments in our various investment products. This initiative is in line with our strategic ambitions to continue developing and strengthening our digital platforms for the benefit of our customers,” says Kerstin Lysholm, Head of Investment Products & Offerings at Danske Bank.

Solid and tangible insight into exclusions
At Danske Bank, we have a keen focus on delivering competitive returns on a responsible basis, and exclusions serve as a valuable tool in this respect for our portfolio managers, alongside active ownership practices and other factors.

Exclusions represent the companies or issuers that we do not invest in or have divested from because they do not support responsible value creation in line with the preferences of our customers. This can include companies involved in activities relating to tobacco, coal, tar sands, pornography and controversial weapons; companies operating in contravention of international norms and conventions; and bond issuers from countries covered by international sanctions.

“The area of exclusions is both complex and dynamic, and working with exclusions involves regular adjustments of our list of excluded companies and issuers. Our new approach enables investors to use exclusions in a more solid and tangible way in an area that can quickly become highly technical and abstract. This makes us one of the Nordic front-runners in this area,” explains Erik Eliasson, Head of Responsible Investment at Danske Bank.

TA clearer picture of the differences between investment products
The new systematic overviews of excluded companies and issuers are now shown on the web page for each Danske Invest fund. Until now, Danske Bank has had a single combined exclusion list that did not provide the same intuitive overview of exclusions for the individual investment products.

Our new approach also makes it even more clear to investment customers how the scope of exclusions can vary across investment products.

“To accommodate different customer preferences, some of our investment products are subject to more restrictions than others. For example, we have a number of Danske Invest funds that are subject to more extensive exclusions on fossil fuels as well as exclusions on military equipment and alcohol for those of our investment customers who don’t want to invest in these,” says Thomas Otbo, Chief Investment Officer of Danske Bank Asset Management.