The world’s leading rater of green credentials is rewarding some of Wall Street’s biggest banks even though they continue to lend billions of dollars to fossil-fuel companies.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is weighing whether to set a hard deadline for financial firms to halt new fossil-fuel investments, if they want their net-zero emissions targets verified by the United Nations-backed group.

Europe is imposing new requirements on how banks report environmental risks and carbon targets, to give investors a better picture of the threats that climate change poses to the industry.

In this fireside chat, Ida Liu, the global head of Citi Private Bank, covers a range of topics, including how digital client engagement is evolving.

The branches will provide services in clients’ preferred languages and employ local residents. Executives say the strategy will help M&T pull in new customers at a time when nonwhite populations are expanding.

Billions of government and corporate dollars are pouring into minority banks and community development lenders, complicating the efforts of some investment funds that had similar goals. Still, banks owned and run by African Americans say the equity infusions are small in the context of the nation’s wide racial wealth gap.

Central bankers need to speak up about economic barriers prompted by racism and the need for inclusion and diversity, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said, a response to critics who see the work as a distraction from the Fed’s main goals. 

The largest U.S. banks have made progress in detailing the risks posed by climate change, but it's clear the industry will have to do more. As federal regulators prepare to impose new obligations, banks are pushing back against calls for more aggressive measures such as capital requirements and increased risk weighting for fossil-fuel lending.

JPMorgan Chase hired Ben Ratner from the Environmental Defense Fund to help advise banking clients on lowering their carbon footprint to combat climate change.

Consumers are pushing card networks and issuers to develop programs that reward them for spending on sustainable products and other initiatives to mitigate climate change.