Diverse partnership

Community Fund

Landsbankinn's Community Fund is key to our contribution to society. In 2020, scholarships were awarded in the amount of ISK 6 million and community grants in the amount of ISK 15 million - a total of ISK 21 million. Since 2011, 384 projects have received grants from the Community Fund in the total amount of ISK 170 million.

Emphasis is placed on ensuring varied support and that the Bank's contributions benefit a wide array of people. The panels are to a majority comprised of experts in each field and we are focused on ensuring that the application process for grants is well established and clear, to ensure that the Bank's customers and all Icelanders have equal opportunity to apply.

Reykjavík Pride

We wholeheartedly support the campaign for LGBTQI+ rights and Landsbankinn has been a proud sponsor of Reykjavík Pride since its inception. Together with Reykjavík Pride, we have also established the Pride Parade Fund, which provides financial support to individuals and smaller groups who participate in the Pride Parade. Tight measures to combat the pandemic lead to the cancellation of most Reykjavík Pride events in 2020. Many smaller parades replaced the one large one.

National queer organisation Samtökin '78

In recent years, we have supported the national queer organisation Samtökin '78. One of its aims is to raise the profile of the queer community and ensure equal treatment of its individual members in Iceland. The organisation offers a wide variety of services, including advisory service and education material.

Financial instruction

We participate in financial instruction and advance financial literacy through extensive coverage and education of economic and financial issues on Umræðan, Landsbankinn’s content and news site. We focus on financial instruction at upper secondary school level, with the aim of boosting students’ financial literacy. This instruction is available to all upper secondary schools and is carried out in collaboration with the schools' representatives.

Covid-19 affected our educational work in 2020. We were only able to make eight visits to five schools in the first months of the year. Later in the year, we participated through teleconferencing equipment. A total of 551 students received financial instruction.

We are an active participant in the project Fjármálavit, education material in financial literacy for older elementary school students. The project is under the auspices of the Icelandic Financial Services Association and the National Association of Pension Funds in collaboration with members.

Future Programmers

The fund Future Programmers is a social initiative that aims to promote programming and technical education in Iceland’s elementary and secondary schools. The Fund supports schools in their endeavour to offer programming courses, gifts computer equipment to schools and advises on programming education and training for teachers. Landsbankinn is one of the Fund's patrons.

Iceland Airwaves

We are a proud backer of music festival Iceland Airwaves held in a different format this year due to the pandemic. In recent years, Landsbankinn has gotten into gear for Iceland Airwaves by creating new videosfeaturing promising musicians. This year, we worked with Jóa P and Króli, BSÍ, Sykur, Moses Hightower and gugusar. The resulting videos can be viewed on Landsbankinn's Airwaves site. Providing support for young musicians allows the Bank to combine corporate social responsibility and its endeavour to actively promote art and culture in Iceland.

Gulleggið innovation competition

We sponsor Gulleggið, an annual innovation competition hosted by Icelandic Startups. The key goal of the competition is to create a platform for young entrepreneurs to practice and gain experience of shaping new business ideas and operating a company. As part of the competition, participants are offered courses, advice and specialist assistance with everything from shaping a business idea to budgeting to communication with investors.

Svanni - Women's Loan Guarantee Fund

In 2020, we renewed our partnership agreement with Svanni - Women's Loan Guarantee Fund, for the next four years. Svanni issues guaranteed loans to companies that are majority-owned by women and is intended to boost industry and encourage innovation. Svanni has for many years partnered with Landsbankinn.

Skólahreysti - Fit for School

We are the main sponsor of Skólahreysti, a sports tournament for elementary schools, and an active supporter of the tournament. The aim of Skólahreysti is to encourage children to participate in a comprehensive sports experience based on the tenets of physical education. The competition was held for the 16th time this year, in an altered form due to Covid-19. Around 60 schools finished the competition and Lindaskóli emerged as the winner in the thrilling finals in Laugardalshöll.

Chess tournament Friðriksmót

Landsbankinn’s Friðriksmót – the Icelandic rapid chess tournament – was held online this year and in two parts. Participation was good on this 17th annual chess tournament, jointly organised by Landsbankinn and the Icelandic Chess Federation.

Football Association of Iceland

We sponsor the Football Association of Iceland (KSÍ). Along with five other companies, Landsbankinn provides financial support for development of Icelandic football country-wide, for all youth national teams and the A-level men's and women's teams.

The women’s national team secured a place in the UEFA Women’s Euro to be held in England in summer 2022. Iceland will also compete in the finals of the Under-21 Championship, scheduled to be held in Slovenia and Hungary in 2021.

Two years ago, Landsbankinn and KSÍ first presented a new award to players in the junior leagues throughout Iceland, the Politeness Prize. This prize is intended to encourage honourable conduct and decorum in players and others involved in matches.

Support for sport and youth activities

We are an enthusiastic supporter of the Icelandic sports scene. Landsbankinn’s branches reach out to local sports clubs throughout the country, focusing on support for children and youth activities.

Rescue squad Landsbjörg

Landsbankinn is among the sponsors of Slysavarnafélagið Landsbjörg, the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue (ICE-SAR). The Bank wishes to contribute to effective rescue service and accident prevention throughout Iceland. ICE-SAR is a national association of rescue and prevention squads and one of Iceland's largest volunteer associations. At the end of 2020, we made a special donation to the rescue squad Ísólfur in Seyðisfjörður.

The Red Cross, Pieta, Mæðrastyrksnefnd

Towards the end of 2020, we made a donation to the Red Cross and to the Icelandic Pieta chapter in the name of Exceptional Companies. Pieta works to prevent suicide and self-harm, and provides support to next of kin. We also decided to donate a sum to a good cause instead of sending Christmas cards, and selected Mæðrastyrksnefnd, the Mothers’ support council.

Menningarnótt - Reykjavík Cultural Night

We have been an active participant in Reykjavík Cultural Night from the beginning and a sponsor of the festival. We have focused on ensuring that financial support directly benefits artists and groups organising events for Reykjavík Cultural Night. Our Reykjavík Culture Night Fund, a collaboration with Höfuðborgarstofa, supports original and special ideas. Sadly, the Reykjavík Culture Night celebrations were cancelled this year because of Covid-19.

Aldrei fór ég suður festival

We are one of the main sponsors of rock festival Aldrei fór ég suður, held in Ísafjörður every Easter. The festival was cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19. Landsbankinn has supported the festival since 2010 as part of our efforts to actively foster the grassroot music scene in Iceland.

Cluster initiative in tourism

We have participated in a tourism cluster initiative since the project was launched in 2012. Key companies in the travel industry, public entities and companies in tourism support branches or collaborative sectors all join forces in the cluster. Its key goal is to boost competitiveness and value-creation in the travel sector.

The Fintech Cluster

We are one of the founding members of the Fintech Cluster along with 62 other companies, universities, organisations and other entities. The aim of the Fintech Cluster is to promote innovation in finance and work to improve and facilitate business transactions of all kinds. The Cluster is a community of actors in finance who wish to encourage increased value creation, competition and improve daily life.

The Iceland Ocean Cluster

We are a partner of the Iceland Ocean Cluster, which aims to boost the competitiveness and value creation of Icelandic companies who utilise marine resources, directly or indirectly. Since its establishment, the Iceland Ocean Cluster has contributed to development and innovation in the sectors in the Cluster, in cooperation with corporates and educational institutions, and published various research and analysis papers.

The Vigdís International Centre

We have enjoyed a good collaboration with the Vigdís International Centre for many years. In 2020, we supported the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Vigdís’ historic election to president. We participated in the “Thanks for being a role model” campaign and contributed to a prize fund that recognised special efforts in the field of languages and linguistics.

Háskólasjóður Eimskipafélagsins fund

Fourteen PhD students at the University of Iceland received grants from the Háskólasjóður H/f Eimskipafélags Íslands Fund in 2020. The Fund is managed by Landsbankinn. It was created in memory of Icelanders who emigrated to the USA and Canada and aims to support research students at the University of Iceland.

IcelandSIF

Landsbankinn was a founding member of IcelandSIF, the Icelandic Sustainable Investment Forum, and is an active participant. IcelandSIF is an independent forum for discussion and education about responsible and sustainable investment.