Norway

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Two (2) Financial Institutions currently invest or make available an estimated USD$ 1,455.17 million in nuclear weapons companies.

Hall of Fame

To identify financial institutions with a policy on nuclear weapons, we researched a variety of sources: NGO reports, screening-agency information, financial institutions’ reports and websites, information from campaigners worldwide and other public sources. Based on this information, 33 institutions were found with a published policy specifically excluding nuclear weapons companies.

We then examined the policies and found that 13 deserve a place in our Hall of Fame, because their policy fit the criteria:

  • The financial institution has published its policy and/or a summary of it;
  • The policy excludes investments in nuclear weapon companies (withdrawing past investments and avoiding future investments)
  • The policy has an ‘all-in’ comprehensive scope:

o    no exceptions for any types of nuclear weapon companies

o    no exceptions for any types of activities by nuclear weapon companies

o    no exceptions for any type of financing or investment by the financial institution

Financial institutions whose nuclear weapon policy does not meet all of the above criteria are included in the “Runners up”. None of the institutions listed in the Hall of Fame invest in any of the 27 identified nuclear weapons producers. A number of these financial institutions have also made their exclusion lists public. Where possible, the links to these lists have been noted for other institutions who wish to adopt similar exclusions.

Storebrand Group

Storebrand is the Nordic region’s leading provider of life insurance and pensions, and offers a comprehensive range of products to retail customers, corporate customers, municipalities and the public sector.1 Storebrand Group’s sustainability strategy applies to all types of investments, such as real estate, forestry, shares in listed and unlisted companies, investments in government bonds and microfinance. Storebrand Group has a combined controversial weapons policy that includes landmines, cluster munitions and nuclear weapons.2 As of 2012, 13 companies were excluded from investment by Storebrand Group due to involvement with nuclear weapons. The exclusion list is not made public.3

Runners up

These are financial institutions that have a published policy excluding investments in nuclear weapons companies, but who’s policy is not comprehensive in scope as it does not meet one or more of the following criteria:

  • no exceptions for any types of nuclear weapon companies
  • no exceptions for any types of activities by nuclear weapon companies
  • no exceptions for any type of financing or investment by the financial institution

 

The Runners up category is quite broad in definition and offers a place to some financial institutions that are almost eligible for the Hall of Fame, but also some institutions that are barely escaping the Hall of Shame. For each institution, we give a description of its policy and investments it currently has in any of the 27 producing companies, if any. We also comment on the reasons why any particular institution is not in the Hall of Fame.

 

By including a Runner up category, we aim to feed discussions on exclusion policies and their implementation. Ultimately, we hope of course to be able to welcome more institutions in the Hall of Fame in future updates.

 

DNB

DNB is Norway’s largest financial services group. It offers a wide variety of financial services: loans, savings, advisory services, insurance and pension products.4 According to the Group Policy for Corporate social responsibility, DNB will not invest in companies which are involved in the production of antipersonnel mines and cluster weapons as described in the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention and the Convention on Cluster Munitions, or in companies which develop and produce central components for use in weapons of mass destruction. Weapons of mass destruction are defined by DNB as NBC weapons (nuclear, biological and chemical).5 As of 24 May 2013, 8 companies were excluded from investment by DNB for involvement in nuclear weapons.6

 

As can be read in our Hall of Shame, DNB has provided a loan to Honeywell International, which is involved in providing Tritium for the US nuclear arsenal (through its management of the Savannah River Site), and in testing simulated nuclear weapons (at White Sands Missile Range). In addition, Honeywell International is involved in a project that aims to extend the lifecycle of the Trident II (D5) nuclear missile currently in the arsenals of the UK and US. While DNB does have a nuclear weapons exclusion policy, it does not currently apply to all of the financial products offered. DNB is currently in the process of clarifying its credit activities guidelines in regards to nuclear weapons companies.7

 Since we found a loan to one of the nuclear weapon producing companies on our list, and because the policy does not apply to all DNB’s financial services, DNB can not be listed in the Hall of Fame but is listed as a Runner-up instead. We commend DNB for their policy and encourage them to further strengthen the policy so they may be listed in the Hall of Fame in our next report.

Government Pension Fund Global

The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) is owned by the Ministry of Finance and managed by NBIM, a branch of the Norwegian Central Bank. Large state revenues from petroleum activities have resulted in substantial financial assets in the Government Pension Fund. The purpose of the Fund is to facilitate government savings to finance rising public pension expenditures, and support long-term considerations in the spending of government petroleum revenues.8 In 2004, the Norwegian government adopted ethical guidelines for the government pension fund. The Council on Ethics is tasked with providing advice to the Ministry on issues related to the fund’s ethical guidelines- provided by the Ministry. A new, updated version of these guidelines appeared on April 12, 2012. The guidelines establish that the fund assets shall not be invested in companies that, themselves or through entities they control “produce weapons that violate fundamental humanitarian principles through their normal use or sell weapons or military material to states that are affected by investment restrictions on government bonds”.

<         Norwegian Ministry of Finance, “The Management of the Government Pension Fund in 2012”,p.79. Available at http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/38359835/PDFS/STM201220130027000EN_PDFS.pdf, last viewed July 2013.))

 

The Revised National Budget for 2004 provides an exhaustive list of weapons covered by the product-based exclusion criteria. The list includes chemical weapons, biological weapons, anti-personnel mines, undetectable fragmentation weapons, incendiary weapons, blinding laser weapons, cluster munitions and nuclear arms. The Fund shall not be invested in companies that develop or produce key components for these types of weapons.9 The criteria for product-based and conduct-based exclusion, as well as a list of the companies excluded or placed under observation on the basis of these criteria, are available on the Ministry’s website. Presently the Norwegian Pension Fund excludes 10 companies involved in the production of nuclear arms.10 The Council on Ethics distinguishes between companies that are involved in the production of missiles that carry nuclear weapons, and companies that are involved in the production of, for example, submarines that are delivery platforms for the missiles.11

This means the Council on Ethics does not consider the production of submarines to fall under the nuclear weapons criterion, so companies are not excluded for such activity.

 

While the Government Pension Fund Global does have a broad policy covering nuclear weapons, the exclusion of delivery systems designed specifically for nuclear weapons delivery, and because we identified investments in companies listed in this report as nuclear weapon producers, prevents the fund from being placed in the Hall of Fame at this time. We commend the Government Pension Fund Global for their policy and encourage them to further strengthen the policy so they may be listed in the Hall of Fame in our next report.

 

KLP

KLP – Kommunal Landspensjonskasse – is Norway’s largest life insurance company. It provides pension, financing and insurance services to local government and state health enterprises as well as to public and private companies.12 KLP has developed product based and conduct based exclusion criteria based on the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact. KLP’s guidelines are aligned with the ethical guidelines for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund. The Fund shall not be invested in companies that develop or produce key components for weapons violating humanitarian principles. As such, KLP does not invest in companies producing cluster munitions, chemical weapons, biological weapons, anti-personnel mines, undetectable fragmentation weapons, incendiary weapons, blinding laser weapons, and nuclear arms.13 KLP formerly published an annually socially responsible investment (SRI) report, and now updates its exclusion list twice per year.14 As of June 2013, KLP excludes 19 companies because of violations of its weapons criteria. The exclusion list is available on the KLP website.

 

KLP, while comprehensively implementing its policy to all of its financial products, is not listed in the Hall of Fame because its policy does not apply to all types of nuclear weapons companies. Also, KLP has minute investments in two companies (Babcock International and Rolls Royce) known to be producing components for the UK nuclear weapons capability. We commend KLP for their policy and encourage them to further strengthen the policy so they may be listed in the Hall of Fame in our next report.

 

Hall of Shame

This section contains the results of our research into which financial institutions are financing and/or investing in the 27 nuclear weapon companies The analysis was performed according to the methodology and thresholds defined in the methodology explanations below. Each section provides the following information for each financial institution:

  • The types of financial relations which the financial institution has with one or more nuclear weapon companies. The relations are grouped by loans, investment banking and asset management. Financial activities are listed alphabetically by nuclear weapons company for each category.
  • The name of the receiving company, the amount, the date and (if known) the purpose for each financial relation. For loans and bonds the maturity date is given, as well as the interest rate.

 

DNB (Norway)

DNB currently has an estimated USD 50.00 million invested or available for the nuclear weapon producers identified in this report.

Loans

In March 2011, Honeywell International secured a five-year revolving credit facility with a value of USD 2,800 million. The proceeds were used for general corporate purposes. DNB participated in the 29-bank syndicate, committing anamount of USD 50 million.15

 

Government Pension Fund Global (Norway)

Government Pension Fund Global currently has an estimated USD 1,405.17 million invested or available for the nuclear weapon producers identified in this report.

Asset management

Table 87 provides an overview of the nuclear weapon producing companies in which Government Pension Fund – Global owns or manages 0.50% or more of the outstanding shares at the most recent available filing date.

Table 1         Shareholdings of Government Pension Fund – Global

Company Country % of all outstanding shares Value (USD mln) Filing date (range)
Aecom United States 0.90 22.08 31-Dec-2012
Babcock International United Kingdom 2.23 131.40 6-Feb-2013
Fluor United States 0.85 81.62 31-Dec-2012
Huntington Ingalls Industries United States 0.84 18.28 31-Dec-2012
Rockwell Collins United States 0.87 69.00 31-Dec-2012
Rolls-Royce United Kingdom 2.38 698.66 22-Feb-2013
SAIC United States 0.81 31.34 31-Dec-2012
Thales France 1.18 82.71 31-Dec-2012
ThyssenKrupp Germany 2.03 245.39 31-Dec-2012
URS United States 0.83 24.69 31-Dec-2012

Source: Thomson ONE Banker, “Share ownership”, Thomson ONE Banker (www.thomsonone.com), viewed July 2013.

 

References

 

  1. Storebrand, “About Storebrand”, available at http://www.storebrand.no/site/stb.nsf/Pages/hovedsideaboutus.html, last viewed July 2013.  ↩

  2. Storebrand, “Corporate Responsibility Report ASA 2012”, p. 5-6 available at http://www.storebrand.no/site/stb.nsf/Get/getdea70351a30c7789736b0fa8059e28d6/$FILE/Barkraftssrapport_Engelsk.pdf, last viewed July 2013 ↩

  3. Storebrand, “Corporate Responsibility Report ASA 2012”, p. 0 available at http://www.storebrand.no/site/stb.nsf/Get/getdea70351a30c7789736b0fa8059e28d6/$FILE/Barkraftssrapport_Engelsk.pdf, last viewed July 2013.  ↩

  4. DNB, “About the Group”, available at https://www.dnb.no/en/about-us/about-the-group.html), last viewed July 2013. ↩

  5. DNB, “Group Guidelines for Ethical investments”, available at https://www.dnb.no/portalfront/nedlast/en/about-us/corporate-responsibility/group-policy-ethical-investments.pdf?popup=true, last viewed July 2013. ↩

  6. DNB, ”Exclusions”, available at https://www.dnb.no/en/about-us/exclusions.html, last viewed July 2013. ↩

  7. Clarified in an email between IKV Pax Christi and Kristin Voll | Sustainability Manager | CSR and Corporate Identity, DNB Bank ASA, received 6 September 2013. ↩

  8. Ministry of Finance, “The Government Pension Fund”, available at http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/fin/selected-topics/the-government-pension-fund.html?id=1441, last viewed July 2013. ↩

  9. Norwegian Ministry of Finance, “The Management of the Government Pension Fund in 2012”,p.79. Available at http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/38359835/PDFS/STM201220130027000EN_PDFS.pdf, last viewed July 2013. ↩

  10. The Babcock & Wilcox Co. (11 January 2013), Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (11 January 2013), Serco Group Plc. (31 December 2007), Gen Corp. Inc. (31 December 2007), Safran SA. (31 December 2005), Northrop Grumman Corp. (31 December 2005), Honeywell International Corp. (31 December 2005), EADS Finance BV (31 December 2005), EADS Co (31 December 2005), Boeing Co. (31 December 2005). ↩

  11. Norwegian Council on Ethics, Recommendation to revoke the exclusion of the companies BAE Systems plc. and Finmeccanica S.p.A. from the investment universe of the Government Pension Fund Global, available http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/FIN/etikk/2013/bae_finmec_eng.pdf, last viewed 27 September 2013. ↩

  12. KLP, “Facts – About KLP”, available at http://www.klp.no/english/about-klp-facts, last viewed July 2013. ↩

  13. KLP, “Exclusion criteria”, available at http://english.klp.no/about-klp/corporate-responsibility/exclusion-and-dialogue#1-9900, last viewed July 2013.  Norwegian Ministry of Finance, “The Management of the Government Pension Fund in 2012”,p.79. Available at http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/38359835/PDFS/STM201220130027000EN_PDFS.pdf, last viewed July 2013. ↩

  14. Clarified in an email from Heidi Finskas, Advisor, Responsible Investments at KLP received on 8 August 2013. ↩

  15. Honeywell International, “Five “Year Credit Agreement”, Honeywell International, 31 March 2011; Thomson ONE Banker, “Tearsheet 2706948115”, Thomson ONE Banker (www.thomsonone.com), 31 March 2011; Bloomberg Database, “Loan finder”, Bloomberg Database, viewed November 2011. ↩

About Susi Snyder

Susi Snyder coordinates the research, publication and campaigning activities surrounding the Don’t Bank on the Bomb report.

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