PenSam

Financial Institutions, Hall of Fame, Report 2018

PenSam is a Danish pension fund that manages occupational pension schemes for about 400,000 clients in Danish municipalities and regions and private organisations. PenSam also offers banking and insurance products.[1] In 2016, PenSam managed 130 billion Danish kroner (€17,5 billion) in assets.[2]

PenSam’s guidelines on ethical investments state that PenSam avoids “companies that contribute to the production or development of cluster bombs, nuclear weapons or any sub-components used only for such weapons.”[3] Pensam excludes companies involved in the production, development, trade, maintenance of nuclear weapons and specifically designed delivery systems for nuclear weapons.[4]

The exclusion policy applies to all of the pension fund’s investments, including those managed by external asset managers.[5]

PenSam maintains a publicly available exclusion list based on research by EIRIS to implement its policy.[6] As of December 2018, the list contains the following companies for involvement with nuclear weapons: Babcock & Wilcox; BAE Systems; Boeing; EADS; Finmeccanica; Fluor Systems; GenCorp; Huntington Ingalls; Honeywell International; Jacobs Engineering; Northrop Grumman Corp; Northrop Grumman Space; Safran; Serco and United Technologies.[7]

Website:

https://www.pensam.dk/engelsk/Pages/Engelsk.aspx

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[1] Pensam, “Forretningsområde”, website Pensam (https://www.pensam.dk/om-pensam/pensam-gruppen/forretningsomraade/Sider/Forretningsomraade.aspx), viewed 23 January 2018.

[2] PenSam, “Årsrapporter 2016”, website PenSam (https://www.pensam.dk/om-pensam/tal/aarsrapporter/Sider/Aarsrapporter.aspx#section-1), viewed 23 January 2018.

[3] Pensam, “Ethical investments”, website Pensam (https://www.pensam.dk/engelsk/Pages/Ethical-investments.aspx), viewed 23 January 2018.

[4] Pensam, written response to PAX dated 13 May 2015.

[5] Pensam, written response to PAX dated 13 May 2015.

[6] Pensam, written response to PAX dated 13 May 2015.

[7] Pensam, “Udelukkelsesliste december 2017”, December 2-017, available at https://www.pensam.dk/om-pensam/PDFfiler/Investering/PenSam’s%20udelukkelsesliste%20selskaber%20november%202017.pdf, viewed 23 January 2018.

Last modified March 2018

About Maaike Beenes

Maaike Beenes works for the humanitarian disarmament program for PAX in the Netherlands. She researches investments by financial institutions in producers of controversial weapons, notably nuclear weapons and cluster munitions, and is co-author of the reports ‘Don’t Bank on the Bomb’ and ‘Worldwide Investments in Cluster Munitions’. As part of the Don’t Bank on the Bomb campaign of PAX and ICAN, she works together with campaigners around the world to hold banks and other investors accountable for their investments in nuclear and other controversial weapons. She was involved in the negotiations for the Treaty on the Prohibition on Nuclear Weapons on behalf of PAX and ICAN.