In 2023, the Council on Ethics participated in reactive dialogues with 76 listed foreign companies. A company dialogue is about how the company handles difficult challenges in its operations such as corruption, human rights, working conditions, health and safety, environmental pollution and biodiversity. Through dialogue, the Council on Ethics can contribute to preventing problems, violations and accidents in various companies and industries.
In the Council’s screening in September 2023 of just over 3,500 holdings, a total of 84 companies were identified with a confirmed violation, or at risk of violation, of an international convention. 3,426 companies passed the screening without comment. At year-end 2023, active dialogues were ongoing with 54 companies in AP1-4’s portfolios, out of the 84 identified in the screening process with confirmed, or at risk of, violation.
| Screening | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
| Number of screened companies in AP Funds’ portfolios | 3 510 | 3 202 | 3 168 | 2 430 |
| – of which, confirmed violations | 18 | 28 | 23 | 22 |
| – of which with risk of violation | 66 | 83 | 89 | 72 |
| – of which, no comment from screening | 3 426 | 3 091 | 3 056 | 2 336 |
| Dialogues | |
| Number of companies in active dialogue | 2023 |
| Number of companies in active dialogue, beginning of year | 86 |
| Companies with closed dialogue, with objectives achieved in the dialogue | -7 |
| Companies with closed dialogue, for other reasons* | -5 |
| Companies with new dialogues initiated | 3 |
| Companies recommended for exclusion by the Council on Ethics | -3 |
| Changes in AP1–4’s holdings, net number of companies | -20 |
| Number of companies in dialogue, December 2023 | 54 |
* For example, the company has sold the business concerned.
During the year, a total of 36 new dialogue stages were achieved in the dialogues conducted (66 stages in 2022), of which 29 stages were achieved in dialogues that were active at year-end and 7 stages in dialogues that were closed in 2023.
It is sometimes the case that the Council on Ethics is engaged in more than one dialogue with the same company. In such cases, the statistics include all stages achieved in all dialogues conducted with the companies concerned