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☆ Exclusive: Banks vote to limit accounting of emissions in bond and stock sales
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-30 | by ( Tommy Wilkes | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Banks' accounting of these emissions will impact their targets for becoming carbon-neutral. The banks have also expressed concern about capital market-related emissions dwarfing their lending-related emissions, the sources said. The Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), an association of banks seeking to harmonise carbon accounting across the industry, formed the working group comprising major banks in the hope that others will follow the standard that emerges. PCAF's board will now have the final say on whether to adopt the 33% accounting share for capital markets. A Standard Chartered spokesperson said the bank was comfortable with any emissions accounting threshold and declined to comment further.

Persons: Banks, Morgan Stanley, PCAF, ShareAction, Xavier Lerin, Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Greg Roumeliotis, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: Sierra Club, Carbon Accounting, Barclays, Bank of America, Citigroup, HSBC, BNP, NatWest, Standard Chartered, United Nations, Thomson Locations: London

☆ 401(k) plans have never been hotter. That’s changing the stock market
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The bill, signed into law late last year, requires employers to automatically enroll all eligible workers into their retirement plans at a savings rate of 3% of salary. Americans had pension plans, Social Security benefits, and their own savings through plans like the 401(k). Those funds tend to be controlled by large asset managers. But through a process called proxy voting, large asset managers are able to vote on shareholder resolutions on behalf of their clients. Asset managers have “significant influence over company practices,” wrote shareholder advocacy group ShareAction in a recent report.

Persons: New York CNN —, That’s, ”, Dave Stinnett, What’s, ShareAction, Tesla, Torsten Slok Organizations: CNN Business, Bell, New York CNN, BlackRock, Vanguard Group, Fidelity Investments, Street Global Advisors, Vanguard, Social Security, Social, Social Security Agency, Security, Lawmakers, Blackrock, Fidelity, Boston University School of Law, Harvard Law School, Vanda Research, EV, Apollo Global Management Locations: New York, United States

The Asia, Africa and Middle East-focused bank had previously set a 2030 target to reduce the emissions 'intensity' of loans to the sector by 30% from 2020 levels. Emissions intensity measures carbon emissions as a percentage of business activity, such as revenue. As a result, carbon emissions can increase in absolute terms even when emissions intensity goes down, because businesses can become more efficient in reducing emissions and still emit more in total when their activity goes up. Banking peers that have adopted an absolute emissions reduction target include HSBC(HSBA.L) and Citi (C.N), as well as a number of smaller banks. "Setting this absolute sector target and supporting our clients in their transition journey are critical sustainability priorities for Standard Chartered," Chief Sustainability Officer Marisa Drew said.

NatWest, supported by climate activist groups, is happy with 100% of facilitated emissions being attributed to the banks behind capital markets deals. Tonia Plakhotniuk, NatWest Markets' Vice President, Climate & ESG Capital Markets, said that 17% risked "a mismatch" because investors would not account for the remainder themselves. This includes Barclays, which apportions 33% of the capital markets financing to the bank and the rest to investors. Reuters GraphicsUntil banks agree on a compromise, experts say lenders could look to book more business as capital markets rather than loans. The Basel Committee's methodology for assessing Global Systemically Important Banks considers direct lending to be six times more important in its impact on the financial system than capital markets underwriting.

☆ Majority of global asset managers still not investing responsibly, ShareAction says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Industry Insight | Reuters Professional | Energy Crisis Spurs Drive To Address 'Blind Spot' Of Leaky Buildings | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Global asset managers controlling trillions of dollars are failing to invest in a way that will protect climate, biodiversity and people, despite efforts by the industry to promote its sustainable finance credentials, the corporate responsibility group ShareAction said on Sunday. Yet, two-thirds of 77 asset managers surveyed, which control $60 trillion of assets, had "serious gaps in their responsible investment policies and practices," the group found based on an analysis of their policies. "As managers of tens of trillions of dollars ... their decisions have a vast impact all over the world. ShareAction assessed managers on several hundred indicators, including their holdings of fossil fuel investments; whether they have set shorter-term emissions reductions targets and how they integrate biodiversity policies into decision-making. ShareAction also found the portion of managers performing significantly worse than their peers has fallen from 51% in 2020 to 35% in 2023.

☆ Majority of global asset managers still not investing responsibly - ShareAction
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Industry Insight | Reuters Professional | Energy Crisis Spurs Drive To Address 'Blind Spot' Of Leaky Buildings | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - European banks risk jeopardising the path to net-zero carbon emissions and the growth of renewable energy unless they stop directly financing new oil and gas fields this year, investors managing assets worth more than $1.5 trillion said on Friday. ShareAction said the five banks and Britain's HSBC (HSBA.L) rank as the largest European financiers of the top oil and gas companies expanding production between 2016 and 2021. However, HSBC said in December that it would stop directly financing new oil and gas fields, joining other banks restricting asset financing, the NGO noted. The spokesperson pointed to the French bank's targets to reduce exposure to oil and gas production by 2025. The International Energy Agency said in 2021 that to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century, no investment into new oil, gas and coal supply projects was needed.

Standard Chartered (STAN.L), a competitor of HSBC in emerging markets, said earlier this year it would end all direct coal financing for clients by 2032. The Global Coal Exit List, which tracks finance firms' ties to the coal sector, said HSBC's fund arm exposure was $3.4 billion at end-November. HSBC said it will have engaged with all listed companies in its actively managed portfolios with more than 10% of revenues from thermal coal by next year. HSBC said in its 2021 annual report that the bank's thermal coal loan exposure was $1 billion, or 0.2% of its total wholesale loan book. When it comes to holding the boards of companies with significant thermal coal exposure to account, HSBC said its fund arm would vote against the election of board chairs at companies planning to expand production and use of thermal coal.

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