Nordic Banks funnel millions of euros into disposable fashion site

Chinese e-commerce platforms Shein and Temu are currently facing heavy criticism in the Nordics, with Sweden’s government even raising the prospect of changing the law to stop imports of clothes and other goods from the companies.

Now, Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet has revealed that several Nordic banking giants have jointly invested over a billion kronor in Temu's parent company, PDD Holdings.

These include Handelsbanken, which also operates in countries including the UK and the Netherlands, and SEB, which is active across the Baltics and in Switzerland as well as the Nordics. Finnish bank Nordea, which operates across Scandinavia has also invested in PDD Holdings, the investigation reveals.

Handelsbanken made the largest investment of 523 million kronor (approximately €45 million), according to Aftonbladet, followed by SEB, which made a 336 million kronor (approximately €29 million) investment.

Notably, two of Handelsbanken's funds that invested in PDD Holdings are labelled as sustainability funds. One of these, Global Index Criteria, was the fund in which Swedish savers placed the most money in 2024, writes Aftonbladet.

"Many savers will likely be deeply disappointed. They expected their money to go to sustainable companies, just as the funds promised," Jakob König, an expert at Fair Finance Guide (an international organisation which examines how sustainably banks invest and lend money) told Aftonbladet.

'Minimal accountability'

Temu has faced extensive global criticism for its business strategy in recent months. The model relies on flying in goods in small packages to avoid EU chemical regulations and customs duties.

"It is based on low prices and minimal accountability. You can't change that without changing the entire company," argues König.

The European Commission recently announced it was investigating Temu for possible violations of the Digital Services Act.

Not breaking the rules

Handelsbanken told Aftonbladet that PDD Holdings has not been found to violate its fund's criteria, but the bank said that it had contacted the company for further information.

Nordea told the newspaper that it accepted that there were “challenges” with PDD’s sustainability work. “We continuously evaluate our holdings and PDD is a particular focus given the various reports and incidents that have been highlighted.

But SEB gave a statement to Aftonbladet saying: "We currently have a combined holding in PDD of approximately SEK 240 million. There are a handful of funds that own the stock and all of which invest in the global stock markets or in emerging markets with the aim of providing broad exposure to these markets. We have no comments regarding any future investments."

Second hand platforms halt resales

The investigation follows increasingly heated debates about the re-sale of Temu and Shein clothes on circular economy platforms around Europe.

Last week Impact Loop reported that several second-hand platforms, including Paris-born Vestiaire Collective and Swedish children’s clothes site Inimini, has decided to stop selling clothes from controversial fast fashion giant Shein.

However other European players including Sellpy and Vinted are continuing to resell large quantities of clothes from Shein.