HSBC Holdings promised to “phase down” its financing of the fossil fuel industry, sending a warning to oil and gas clients as the bank works toward its target of net-zero emissions.

A group of religiously affiliated shareholders that had pushed the bank to write the report says it does not include the voices of key stakeholders. The report's recommendations, written by an outside law firm, touch on workforce diversity, customer remediation and preventing retaliation against employees.

West Virginia’s legislature has approved a proposal that could restrict the state’s work with financial institutions that have limited their business with coal and oil companies. 

Citigroup, the U.S. bank with the largest presence in Russia, will broaden its withdrawal beyond previously announced plans to dispose of consumer operations there.

Toronto-Dominion Bank set targets for reducing the emissions intensity of lending to certain energy industries, charting a clearer path for a plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 while still boosting its loan book in those sectors.

Royal Bank of Canada shareholders will vote on whether the bank should tighten its standards for sustainable finance, action inspired by a 2021 pipeline financing deal that was criticized for greenwashing and general concern over lax standards for so-called sustainability-linked debt.

The program is aligned with an initiative Bank of Montreal started in 2019 to double its support for small businesses and female entrepreneurs.

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.

The North Carolina company has estimated the degree of exposure to flooding and hurricanes that exists in its mortgage and commercial loan books and has tallied its losses from severe storm damage in recent years. It’s one of a few regional banks to publish assessments based on the criteria of a global task force.

Join industry experts to explore how financial institutions can better prepare for future compliance issues associated with the evolving landscape.

Conservative groups have sued the Securities and Exchange Commission and the state of California to overturn rules requiring banks and other companies to add more women and minorities as directors. Experts say the legal challenges are unlikely to change how corporations think about boardroom diversity.