Skandia sells itself as the calm Swedish grown-up in the room, polishing pensions and preaching long-term responsibility. Then it turns around and props up Cummins, the emissions cheat that got caught with its hand in the exhaust pipe. Sustainable? Get fucked.

The Stake: Your Pension, Their Poison

Skandia is in Cummins. Not a rumour. Not a hunch. An actual position. Enough to matter, enough to be noticed, and enough to stink.

They are not “watching closely”. They are holding. They are backing. They are helping keep the share price warm while Cummins tries to rebrand its rap sheet as “innovation”.

Cummins does not deserve quiet money. It deserves loud consequences.

Cummins: The Fine That Should Have Ended The Party

Cummins agreed a record-breaking civil penalty over emissions cheating on diesel engines. That is the bit the polite investors always try to mumble past, like it is an awkward fart in a lift.

It was not a minor compliance wobble. It was a monster number, tied to software games and polluted air. And investors like Skandia stayed in their seats, straight-faced, pretending the only thing that matters is “returns”.

You cannot sell “security” while financing a company that spent years selling toxic bullshit.

Skandia’s Brand: Soft Lighting, Hard Cynicism

Brands like these are TCAP’s bread and butter.

Skandia is mutual. Policyholders. Savers. Regular people trusting the “Nordic model” to not behave like a casino. The marketing is all clean lines and moral superiority.

Meanwhile the money is doing what money always does when nobody is looking. It crawls towards filth, because filth pays.

They are not the victim here. They are the fucking enabler.

The Skandia Affair: When The Mask Slipped

Skandia has form.

Early 2000s, Sweden gets a front-row seat to executives treating a mutual institution like a private trough. Bonuses. perks. arrogance. A culture that looked after itself first, and everyone else last.

That matters because it tells you the truth about “values” when the camera is off.

You do not “become” ethically flexible overnight. You either are, or you are not. And Skandia’s history reads like a lesson in how quickly lofty language turns into grubby behaviour when there is cash on the table.

Solvency Slap: Even The Basics Were Wobbling

Then there is the later regulatory hit over solvency rule breaches and calculations. The sort of story that gets filed under “technical”, because it is easier to ignore.

But here is the point. If you are a pensions-and-security outfit, compliance is not a side quest. It is your fucking job.

So the question writes itself: if you can get the fundamentals wrong in your own house, why should anyone believe you are exercising “responsible ownership” when you bankroll a corporate polluter like Cummins?

The “Skandia Man” Footnote: A Dark Little Ghost In The Lobby

And now, the bit that makes people shuffle in their seats.

Skandia has a forever-shadow in Swedish public life because of the “Skandia Man”, Stig Engström, the employee tied to the Olof Palme assassination case when prosecutors closed it in 2020 by naming him as the likely suspect, without trial because he was dead. Then, in December 2025, Sweden’s director of public prosecutions said there was not enough evidence and criticised that earlier pointing-out. That is where it sits. Public record. A national wound. And Skandia’s name stuck in the wallpaper like a damp patch.

Let me be crystal clear for the inevitable professional whingers: Skandia the organisation is not accused of murdering anyone. This is not me doing conspiracy cosplay.

This is me saying: for a company that markets itself as safe hands, Skandia sure does collect bleak associations like cigarette ash on a white sofa.

And that is before we even get back to Cummins.

Why This Matters: They Fund The Lie, Then Sell You “Values”

Cummins pollutes, pays, spins, repeats. Investors keep the lights on. Skandia is part of that machine, whether it wants to admit it or not.

So here is the offer, Skandia.

If you want to keep funding Cummins, do it openly. Stop hiding behind Nordic virtue language while your portfolio props up a company with a headline-grabbing emissions settlement on its back.

If you want to be what you claim to be, cut the cord.

Otherwise you are just another well-dressed accomplice, smiling politely while the engine coughs out poison.

Closing Cut

Skandia wants to be seen as the adult in the room. Fine. Adults own their choices.

Right now, their choice is Cummins.

And that makes them complicit. Simple as that. Now go sit with the children.

Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project

Shareholder Spotlight : Livförsäkringsbolaget Skandia, Ömsesidigt – Nordic Virtue, Diesel Filth