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.

More than 180 community development financial institutions and minority depository institutions will receive the federal funds under a pandemic-era program. “It’s a lifesaver,” a credit union CEO said.

HSBC Holdings is planning to phase out the financing of coal used for generating electricity by 2040, the latest bank to commit to ending support for the greenhouse gas-intensive fossil fuel.

CEO Jane Fraser said the bank isn’t a fan of the idea of simply asking clients to dispose of any so-called brown assets, which would just shift the problem to a new owner.

The city and the nonprofit Operation HOPE will offer $100 to kids from low-income households, with banks playing an assisting role. “Once you own some stock, once you have an account, now you're watching that grow and you’re a participant in the” financial system, said John Hope Bryant, the nonprofit's founder and CEO.

Formerly incarcerated people have long faced barriers to entering the mainstream financial system. Banks such as Old National and Bank of Hawaii are taking steps to help them, but the industry can do more, according to a new white paper from the American Bankers Association Foundation.

Recruiting from competitors can be hard to pull off, and it won't create more equity in the industry. Some of the Best Banks to Work For are finding ways to develop, support and promote women who are already on the payroll.