What drives successful impact management? Insights from Finnfund’s OPIM verification

Marko Berglund Head of Impact marko.berglund@finnfund.fi

A key question in impact investing is how to manage impact effectively in practice. At Finnfund, we take a systematic approach across all our investments. In line with our mission to build a sustainable future and generate lasting impact by investing in businesses that solve global development challenges with Finnish added value, we focus on three strategic areas: i) climate and nature, ii) digital infrastructure and iii) local growth, decent jobs and livelihoods. We assess up front the expected development impacts of our investments in emerging markets, and actively manage and track them over time, including at exit.

As a forerunner in the impact investing space, Finnfund was among the first signatories to join the Operating Principles for Impact Management (OPIM) in 2019. The framework, widely adopted by a range impact investors, consists of nine principles that guide how investors define impact objectives, select and structure investments, assess their contribution, manage risks, monitor results and ensure responsible exits.

Crucially, OPIM also requires regular independent verification, shifting the focus from intention to implementation. In practice, this means clearly linking investments to impact goals, assessing how an investor adds value beyond financing, tracking results over time and considering how impact is sustained when exiting an investment. Our latest verification (2025) provides an external perspective on how we apply the OPIM principles in practice, and shows that our approach is both robust and continuously improving.

What our OPIM verification showed us

The independent verification by a third party confirmed that Finnfund’s impact management system is strongly aligned with the Operating Principles for Impact Management, with practices that in many areas exceed the framework’s requirements. Overall, Finnfund’s practices showcase a robust and credible approach to impact management.

Finnfund performs above the global average of OPIM signatories in several key areas. These include a clear alignment between our investment strategy and defined impact objectives, the integration of impact considerations throughout the investment process, a structured approach to assessing our contribution beyond financing and well-defined exit practices that support the continuity of impact — including assessing impact at exit and engaging with new owners to safeguard key development outcomes. At the same time, our approach is broadly in line with other leading impact investors in areas such as impact assessment, ESG and impact risk management, and monitoring. This reflects both the maturity of our systems and the increasing level of standardisation across the industry.

More broadly, the verification showed that impact is consistently integrated into how we make and manage investments from origination to exit. Impact considerations are an integral part of investment selection, structuring, monitoring and follow-up, rather than a separate process. The verification process itself is an important part of impact investing, as it includes detailed reviews of policies and systems, analysis of investment cases, interviews across our company, and benchmarking against a wide group of peers.

Focusing on continuous development

For Finnfund, the value of verification lies not only in confirming strong performance, but also in identifying where we can further strengthen our approach. Currently we are focusing on consolidating and updating our procedures and processes, to ensure that they are clear, easily accessible and integrated across various parts of relevant workstreams.

Impact management is an evolving field, and expectations are rising. At Finnfund, we see this as an opportunity. The Operating Principles for Impact Management, together with independent verification, highlight the progress we have made and help guide our next steps. Our vision is that people and the planet are at the core of every investment decision, and this means continuing to develop how we manage and measure impact. We look forward to our next independent third party OPIM verification.