A senior Bank of England executive has strongly affirmed that UK banks remain “vibrantly” committed to tackling climate change, even after a prominent global finance alliance collapsed. David Bailey, from the Bank’s regulatory arm, sought to calm concerns following the recent closure of the UN-backed Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA).
The alliance’s demise was triggered by a mass exodus of major financial institutions. Several large US banks quit the group, a move some analysts believe was intended to fend off “anti-woke” criticism from US politicians.
Following this trend, UK banking giants HSBC and Barclays also withdrew their membership by early August. This departure of some of the world’s largest banks left the NZBA hollowed out, leading to its shutdown in early October.
Despite this, Bailey insisted that the Bank of England’s (BoE) work with financial firms on this issue has not wavered. “We’ve been focused on our responsibilities on the financial risks arising from climate change, and firms remain very actively engaged with us on that,” he stated.
The BoE’s regulatory body, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), is continuing to monitor climate-related financial risks. Bailey also indicated that the door remains open for more climate stress tests, which assess the banking sector’s resilience to global heating disasters.