Responsible investment

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is committed to responsible investment. As of 2008, the Church Pension Fund complies with the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and built its responsible investment activities around these principles.

The Church Pension Fund’s guidelines for responsible investing were updated in June 2014. In addition to steering the fund’s work, these guidelines serve as an example for parishes and other investment entities within the sphere of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.

The Church Pension Fund applies several different approaches to responsible investing and combines them in different ways. The approaches are not mutually exclusive, but instead look at the issue from different angles.

Approaches to responsible investing

The Church Pension Fund’s responsible investment approaches include responsibility analysis, active ownership and engagement, and impact investing.

  • Responsibility analysis is used to assess the level of responsibility of investment objects in terms of the ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) criteria. This information can then be used to either favour or avoid the companies in question.
  • Active ownership and engagement mean that the Pension Fund initiates a dialogue with a company to change corporate practices. In direct engagement, the Pension Fund attends annual general meetings and participates in company dialogues. In indirect engagement, an asset manager or consultant carries out the dialogue with the companies and participates in the annual general meetings on behalf of the Pension Fund.
  • Impact investing refers to investments in companies, organisations or funds whose purpose is to generate investment returns and have a significant social or environmental impact.

The Church Pension Fund secures the payment of pensions

Established in 1991, the Church Pension Fund is a restricted fund intended to ensure payment of Church employee pensions and to balance the future development of the parish pension payments. The Pension Fund uses external asset managers in its investment management.

Church Pension Fund’s Guidelines for Responsible Investment

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