Responsible banking practices: benchmark study 2021

The financial world can no longer see its future as separate from the environment and climate change developments. In 2020 alone, natural hazards resulted in $210bn of damages and the Bank of England estimates as much as $20trn of assets could be at risk from climate change. 

To help banks and their stakeholders with this transition, this year’s study builds on previous Mazars reports published in 2020: “Responsible banking practices, benchmark study” and “How banks are responding to the financial risks of climate change”. This year, following stakeholder feedback and interest, it examines a wider sample of 37 banks based in Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. Using these banks’ 2019/20 publicly available reporting, we identify evolving best practices and developing trends in their management of climate change risk and broader social and governance issues.