SEB Streamline Its ESG Data to Spearhead Sustainability

SEB is a leading Nordic financial services group with a 165-year heritage to its name. With a strong ambition to be a driving force in the transition to a greener future, SEB has put sustainability at the core of its product innovation and customer offering. Together with Morningstar and Morningstar Sustainalytics, SEB hopes to continue pushing the boundaries in this space and demonstrate its ongoing commitment to sustainability.

As part of its Tellus initiative, SEB wanted to focus on unifying its sustainability data internally with a single, transparent source across different business lines in order to provide its clients with a clear and consistent approach to understanding and managing ESG risks and opportunities.  

“One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced is aligning our approach to sustainability both at the company level and at the client level,” said Per Georgzén, Deputy Head of Sustainability, Corporate and Private Customers. “We looked closely at how we were using our sustainability data within the bank and the contracts that we had, recognising that a shift was needed in order to operate with greater efficiency and to respond to the increase in client demand. We needed to harmonise our definition of sustainability across the bank, and how we were using ESG data, in order to give our clients that same understanding and clarity.”  

With one data hub easily accessible to all areas of the business, Morningstar and Sustainalytics’ uniform methodology and single source of ESG data has helped SEB bring together different parts of the bank and foster greater collaboration within the company through a common lens.

One of the key drivers behind SEB’s Tellus initiative is to help clients make more informed sustainability decisions with their capital by providing clear and digestible data.  

“Sixty to 70% of people in Sweden are already doing something to help the environment in their daily lives,” said Georgzén. “Yet not everyone has made a conscious decision to contribute to sustainability when it comes to their finances. A lot of this comes from lack of understanding and education.” 

“At SEB, we want to show our customers through powerful insights and easy-to-understand data the true power and impact that their financial decisions can have on sustainability issues,” he added. “The holistic approach of Morningstar combined with the quality of ESG data provided by Sustainalytics means we can truly add more value to our clients by creating better, more advanced products which respond to the growing interest in sustainable investing. This in turn helps us keep our competitive edge as a business.”

As regulations continue to evolve and become more stringent in the sustainable finance universe, keeping on top of legislative changes was also a priority for SEB when rethinking its approach to sustainability.  

“We’ve had a glimpse of the tangible areas of the regulatory set up that is coming our way, and we have also seen the new data sets from Morningstar and Sustainalytics that are launching to meet these requirements,” said Georgzén. “The innovative and flexible solutions on offer will help us manage our ESG data in the right way—not just complying with a new regulatory environment but enabling us to be prepared for change before it comes.” 

“The new technical structure that we’ve built internally using the data from Sustainalytics can be accessed by any part of the bank,” he continued. “This means that when changes need to be made, everything is done efficiently in one place with the entire bank following automatically.”

Having worked with Morningstar for over 20 years, SEB wanted to continue nurturing this successful relationship rooted in collaboration and innovation.  

“We like what Morningstar offers—a company with good local coverage in the Nordics combined with global expertise and experience,” said Georgzén. “The joint approach with Sustainalytics is also very appealing. This is truly a forward-looking, long-term partnership that will see us break new grounds in sustainability and continue to challenge each other.” 

Stockholms Enskilda Bank (SEB) was founded in 1856 by the Wallenberg family as Stockholm’s first private bank. Today, SEB is the bank of choice for large corporations and financial institutions in Sweden and hold a forefront position in providing corporate services in Norway, Denmark, Finland, and the United Kingdom.  

In Sweden and the Baltic countries, SEB offer financial advice and a wide range of financial services. In Denmark, Finland, Norway and Germany, operations have a strong focus on a full-service offering to corporate and institutional clients.

SEB has not received any cash or non-cash compensation from Morningstar, directlyor indirectly, in exchange for this client success story.