DNB (Den Norske Bank) is Norway’s largest financial services group, serving 2.1 million retail customers and 210,000 corporate clients in Norway. It offers a wide variety of financial services, including loans, savings, advisory services, insurance and pension products.[1] As of the first half of 2017, DNB group held NOK 599.7 billion (€64.9 billion) assets under management.[2]
DNB does not invest in companies “which develop and produce central components for use in weapons of mass destruction”. The financial group defines weapons of mass destruction as NBC weapons (nuclear, biological and chemical weapons) and excludes companies regardless of their origin.[3]
The exclusion policy applies to all assets managed, regardless of whether they are managed by DNB‘s internal or external asset managers. If DNB finds that a company is involved in controversial weapons (including nuclear weapons), DNB will actively divest and exclude that company from its investment universe.[4]
DNB uses an exclusion list to implement its policy, which is based on information from internal research and external research providers GES Investment Services and MSCI.[5] As of 30 September 2017, the following companies are excluded for involvement in nuclear weapons: AECOM,
Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing, BWX Technologies, Fluor, Honeywell International, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Jacobs Engineering, Leidos Holdings, Leonardo-Finmeccanica, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Orbital ATK, Raytheon, Safran and Serco.[6]
We commend Danske Bank for adopting a public policy on nuclear weapons. DNB was found to have below-the-threshold shareholdings in nuclear weapon producers. We recommend DNB to exclude all nuclear weapon producers so we can include DNB in the Hall of Fame of future updates of this report.
[1] DNB, “About the Group”, website DNB (https://www.dnb.no/en/about-us/about-the-group.html), viewed 23 January 2018.
[2] DNB, “DNB Group Second quarter and first half report 2017”, p.15, available at https://www.dnb.no/portalfront/nedlast/no/om-oss/resultater/2017/2-kvartal/dnb-group-2q17.pdf, viewed 23 January 2018.
[3] DNB, “DNB Group Annual Report 2016”, available at https://2016.dnb.no/responsible-operations/#Contribute_to_a_healthy_economy, viewed 23 January 2018; DNB, written response to Profundo dated 9 May 2014; DNB, written response to Profundo dated 13 June 2014.
[4] DNB, “DNB Group Annual Report 2016: Results that count”, p.74, available at https://www.dnb.no/portalfront/nedlast/no/om-oss/resultater/2016/annual-report-dnb-group-2016.pdf, viewed 23 January 2018.
[5] DNB, written response to Profundo dated 3 July 2014.
[6] DNB, “Exclusions”, DNB website (https://www.dnb.no/en/about-us/exclusions.html), viewed 23 January 2018.
Last updated March 2018