Sustainability means taking responsibility for the impact and imprint we have on our environment and society. At Säkra, it is a natural part of our business, and we constantly work to improve our efforts in our daily operations and through the services we offer.
Responsible investing is a way of contributing to a better future for coming generations. The fund and pension companies that manage the capital allocated to savings and pensions have great power to influence the companies in which they invest. This can be done, for example, by investing carbon free, excluding companies where there is child labor or where employees do not have good working conditions.
Sustainability in pension advice
As a financial advisor, we have an opportunity to make a significant impact by offering advice and guidance when it comes to sustainable investments. In accordance with new EU directives, we will consider your preferences on sustainability from three different perspectives:
- Sustainable investments according to the EU Taxonomy
Currently, it covers investments that are defined as environmentally sustainable according to the Taxonomy. It could, for example, be companies that promote a green transition.
- Sustainable investments according to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR)
Fund companies and other financial market participants are obliged to provide information on how well an investment meets various sustainability factors. In addition to environmental issues, it also covers social issues, respect for human rights and the fight against corruption and bribery.
- Factors that negatively affect sustainability – Principle Adverse Impacts (PAI)
Taking negative sustainability impacts into consideration can, for example, mean avoiding companies where there are violations of human rights, poor working conditions or high levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
Sustainability risks
At present, we will not take sustainability risks into account when choosing which products we recommend. Sustainability risk is defined as an environment-related, social or governance-related event or circumstance that, if it were to occur, would have an actual or potentially significant negative impact on the value of the investment. We do not assess the probable consequences of sustainability risks on the return because we have not been able to identify all relevant such risks.
Our ambition is to develop our sustainability capabilities in our advice. As new standards (taxonomies) emerge from the EU and a harmonization of sustainability reporting becomes available, our opportunities to integrate this into our advice to you will increase. Further guidance from the supervisory authorities is also expected in relation to sustainability-related information provision. When additional legislation enters into force and becomes available, we will adapt our operations and revise our information on how we integrate sustainability risks into our advice.
As we haven’t integrated sustainability risks and only integrated a negative effect on sustainability factors to a limited extent, this does not affect our remuneration policy to our advisers. When the regulations regarding sustainability in insurance are complete, we will integrate this into our system for compensation to employees.
For advice outside insurance, we refer to the securities company Säkra Spar, to which we are affiliated agents.
