Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 24, 2026
2 min readLast updated: March 24, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleTwo Danish pension funds, AkademikerPension and Sampension, are backing a resolution at Nordea’s March 24, 2026 AGM to prohibit new lending to companies expanding upstream oil and gas operations north of the Arctic Circle, citing environmental and financial risks. Nordea argues its current strategy
By Anne Kauranen
HELSINKI, March 24 (Reuters) - At least two Danish institutional investors support a shareholder resolution calling for the Nordic region's biggest bank Nordea to stop all financing to companies expanding Arctic oil and gas production due to environmental risks.
The investors, pension funds Akademiker and Sampension, told Reuters of their voting intentions before the bank's annual general meeting on Tuesday.
The activist motion comes amid the Iran-war-driven oil shock and after the Norwegian government last year announced plans for increased drilling in Norway's offshore Arctic region.
The resolution targets Norwegian energy companies Equinor, Aker BP and Var Energi, which are invested in Arctic exploration and drilling.
It calls on Nordea to align with its Nordic rivals - Danske Bank, Swedbank, Handelsbanken, Nykredit and OP Financial Group - in stopping lending to companies that are expanding their oil and gas activities north of the Arctic Circle, the resolution said.
"The vulnerable Arctic ecosystems are at risk of becoming the new centre of Norwegian oil and gas production," said one of the proposal's writers, senior advisor Katrine Ehnhuus of the Nordic Center for Sustainable Finance.
Nordea said it does not provide dedicated finance to expansion of oil and gas or Arctic drilling but will continue to provide funding to the Norwegian companies in question.
"We continue to support a few carefully selected companies that play an important role in ensuring affordable and secure energy supply in Europe," Nordea said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
Sampension said they would vote in favour of the resolution because "certain types of activities appeared to have been excluded" from Nordea's assessment of its exposure to fossil fuel expansion.
"In our assessment of both the proposal and the Board of Directors' response to the proposal, it appears that the company has not provided shareholders with a sufficiently transparent picture of its activities related to the financing of fossil fuel expansion," Jacob Ehlerth Jorgensen, head of ESG at Sampension, told Reuters by email.
(Reporting by Anne Kauranen in Helsinki, additional reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo, editing by Andrei Khalip)
They are concerned about Nordea's support for companies expanding Arctic oil and gas production and the associated environmental risks.
The resolution targets Norwegian energy companies Equinor, Aker BP, and Var Energi, all involved in Arctic oil exploration.
Nordea states it does not provide dedicated financing for Arctic expansion but supports select companies to ensure affordable, secure energy in Europe.
Banks like Danske Bank, Swedbank, Handelsbanken, Nykredit, and OP Financial Group have stopped lending to companies expanding Arctic oil and gas activities.
Sampension claims Nordea's disclosures lack sufficient transparency regarding its involvement in fossil fuel expansion financing.
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