Fund management – a pioneer in socially responsible investing

Norway is internationally known for the ethical investment strategy exercised by the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, which has blacklisted companies such as WalMart and recently sold all tobacco company investments from its NOK 2,640 billion (USD449 billion) portfolio. But the Norwegian fund management industry has been blazing trails in socially responsible investing since the mid-1990s, nearly a decade before the Government Pension Fund’s ethical guidelines.