ICCR’s financial services group challenges the nation’s largest banks, regulatory agencies and financial policy experts to provide greater access to affordable credit for low-income communities and proper risk oversight systems to help stabilize global financial markets and mitigate against future financial crises.
As part of our members’ work on responsible finance, they also engage with banks on the environmental and social impacts of their lending and underwriting activities.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Featured ICCR Initiatives
Climate Finance. Since the signing of the Paris Agreement, 33 global banks have provided the fossil fuel industry with $1.9 trillion in financing. Financing by banks and insurance companies is helping prolong the dominance of fossil fuels in our energy supply and delay the transition to clean energy. While several major banks have begun to acknowledge their role in exacerbating climate risk, few have so far changed their lending policies to mitigate that risk.
For the 2022 proxy season, ICCR members and their allies filed a slate of nine proposals at top U.S. banks, and seven proposals with major insurance companies calling for greater accountability in climate lending. A resolution on financing consistent with the IEA net-zero 1.5C scenario was filed at Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. Bank of America and Citigroup received resolutions requesting an audited report on impact of IEA net-zero emissions by 2050 scenario. JPMorgan Chase also received a proposal requesting a report on absolute emissions reduction aligned with the IEA net-zero emissions by 2050 scenario.
Several Canadian banks, including Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank of Canada, and Toronto Dominion, likewise received resolutions addressing financing consistent with a net-zero by 2050 scenario, avoiding bank participation in pollution-intensive asset privatization, and the integrity of the sustainable finance definition.