Banks getting aggressive on sustainable development and climate change
Within the industry (25 among the largest banks in market capitalization), HSBC is leading the way ahead of ABN AMRO and Bank of America, while US Bancorp and Banco Bilbao occupy the last positions. While global warming offers banks opportunities (carbon emissions reduction plans, investments in renewable energy), it also brings increased scrutiny on their credit policies (environmental risks in project finance). According to some banking groups, which includes Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, Citibank, ABN AMRO, Credit Suisse, Dresdner Kleinwort, Fortis and Climate Change Capital, trading activity in voluntary offsets has been hard to verify. In some cases, the credits may have been sold multiple times to different buyers, which risks giving the much broader market a reputation for shoddy practices, suggest media reports. However, banks show the second best EthicalQuote reputation score from June 2006 to June 2007 compared to nine other industries, states a report released on 29 June 2007 by Geneva-based ethical reputation research firm Covalence, Covalence Banking Industry Report 2007.
Publication: Covalence in the Press | Country: Global | Company: HSBC,
