Human Rights Due Diligence in the Financial Sector: A Compendium of Industry Case Studies and Practice

Financial institutions play a vital role in the global transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy that upholds human rights and ensures that no one is left behind. With influence across industries, they hold unique leverage to promote responsible business conduct across the value chain. 

BSR, the Danish Institute for Human Rights, and Shift have partnered to publish Human Rights Due Diligence in the Financial Sector: A Compendium of Industry Case Studies and Practice. This publication illustrates how financial actors are implementing human rights due diligence (HRDD) in line with international standards, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. 

Through six in-depth case studies, the compendium explores how banks, investors, and insurers are embedding HRDD into their governance frameworks, operational processes, and financing activities. It focuses on the downstream value chain—that is, how financial institutions identify, assess, and address actual and potential adverse human rights impacts associated with their corporate clients, portfolio companies, and asset managers. While human rights issues can also arise within institutions’ own operations or supply chains, the most significant impacts typically occur through these downstream relationships. 

The case studies include: 

• ING: Getting human rights risk right through on-the-ground, in-depth assessment 
• SpareBank 1 Sør-Norge: Advancing human rights in corporate lending 
• AP6: Catalyzing respect for human rights in private capital markets 
• AP Pension: Revisiting human rights due diligence governance under new EU sustainable finance regulation 
• NN Group: Embedding sustainability into insurance through policy, engagement, and pragmatic leverage 
• Permira: A human rights journey in private equity 

Together, these examples provide a snapshot of emerging good practices and ongoing efforts to translate human rights commitments into concrete action. The compendium aims to inspire peer learning and accelerate progress across the financial sector toward integrating human rights considerations throughout the downstream value chain.