Banks’ low-ambition and incoherent climate targets put net zero goals at risk – new ShareAction analysis

Fresh analysis published by responsible investment NGO ShareAction has exposed low-ambition and incoherent climate targets at Europe’s 20 largest banks. This means banks are unlikely to succeed in shifting enough financing away from fossil fuels and toward renewable power, green infrastructure and technologies at the speed and scale needed to prevent a dangerously heated world. The research, which analysed both targets for reducing emissions from financing activities and targets for increasing sustainable finance, found that overall banks’ decarbonisation targets are too narrow, their sustainable finance targets are not rooted in…

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Climate X Research Shows 88% of Top Global Banks Unprepared for Climate-Related Disruptions

Climate X, a leader in climate risk data analytics, today announced the findings of its first-of-its-kind report, “The Top 50 Banks in the World Tackling Adaptation 2024”, conducted in collaboration with Climate Proof. This report ranks 50 of the world’s largest commercial banks based on their climate adaptation maturity, evaluated across 17 key indicators. The analysis reveals a significant gap in preparedness, with 88% of the top global banks failing to adequately address climate adaptation risks. Despite growing awareness, only 7 of the top 50 banks assessed meet more than…

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UK charity regulators urge banks to remove ‘avoidable frustrations’ for charities

The bosses of the UK’s charity regulators have written to the UK’s largest banks to request “urgent action” to stop charities being given poor service or denied accounts. The letter, from Helen Stephenson (Charity Commission for England and Wales), Maureen Mallon (Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator) and Frances McCandless (Charity Commission for Northern Ireland), says that charities are “on the frontline of the current cost-of-living crisis”, and that the challenges they face are being “heightened by avoidable frustrations” created by banks. The three chief executives say there is “little…

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First opportunity for banks to receive stamp of approval on science-based climate targets

New science-based target validation now available to help financial players align their lending and investments with the Paris Agreement. 55 institutions already committed. The first opportunity for financial institutions to set science-based targets to align their lending and investment activities with climate science is launched today by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Banks, investors and insurance companies can now verify whether climate targets for their operations and portfolios align with the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global warming to 1.5°C or well-below 2°C . 55 financial institutions including Bank.…

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USAA and Harris Bank are Most Reputable Banks in 2018

USAA and Harris Bank are the most reputable banks in the United States this year, according to Reputation Institute and American Banker’s 2018 Annual Survey of Bank Reputations. “This year’s results reveal that workplace, governance, leadership and financial performance are most important to banking customers,” said Brad Hecht, Senior Managing Director of Americas at Reputation Institute. “A strong reputation is especially important for a bank as it facilitates customer appeal and loyalty, operating license from policymakers and regulators, and employee attraction and retention. For the first time, governance is the…

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