The legislation facilitates comparison of sustainability data disclosed by corporates, as the criteria it espouses allows for comparison. This requires a better dialogue between financial institutions and their customer - to achieve climate targets, we all need to collaborate. And comparable information allows us to assess the alignment of loan products with the criteria of the Taxonomy.
In my work for the Bank, I participate in preparation and work with the Bank’s divisions to implement this new legislation and the appropriate technical standards. It is important to make the employee and customer experience as simple and comfortable as possible as the technical demands are very complex and can easily contribute to a negative experience if not handled with care. It’s important to ensure a smooth and successful process.
Green and eco-friendly housing
In January, the Bank finished updating its Sustainable Finance Framework to align with the EU Taxonomy in so far as possible. Not all categories of the Framework can be aligned with the Taxonomy criteria as not all domestic industries fit its definitions.
The update is based on the most recent draft of the EU Green Bond Standard, meaning that we will have limited need to update it again when the Standard enters into force. Other changes include that the updated Framework provides definitions of eco-friendly and green residential housing, based on the Bank’s own methodology.
EUR 900 million in green bonds
The Bank has issued a total of EUR 900 million in green bonds. The reception has been good and issuances have been considerably oversubscribed. It’s important to ensure good information management for these issuances, communicate them securely and ensure that the Bank can demonstrate that it is allocating the proceeds to projects that meet green funding criteria, while also assessing the option of further issuance.
I have also overseen calculation of financed emission from the Bank’s loan and asset portfolios, using the PCAF methodology. Landsbankinn has been an active participant in PCAF since becoming a member in 2019 and I am currently the Bank’s representative and co-chair of PCAF Nordic, a European subgroup of PCAF. At the turn of the year, around 40 financial undertakings in the Nordics were part of PCAF Nordic and our numbers are growing. The group shares information and creates work groups that develop the PCAF methodology to reflect the local environment. The Bank published its second PCAF report in 2023 and became one of few businesses who have achieved a limited assurance engagement for the report.
Among other projects is the Bank’s work on adopting scientific targets to reduce carbon emissions from its operation based on the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
These are some of the larger projects I’m involved in with the Sustainability Team. We work on many other and sometimes unexpected tasks as well, as sustainability is developing at a fast pace and is by its very nature quite comprehensive. The work is diverse and dynamic and keeps me on my toes.”
