ECB fines French bank for climate risk failures
FRANKFURT, Germany — The European Central Bank said Friday it had fined French bank Credit Agricole 7.55 million euros ($9 million) for failing to properly identify climate change-related risks that could affect its balance sheet.
“Credit Agricole did not sufficiently assess the materiality of its climate-related and environmental risks” by a deadline set after an investigation in 2024, the ECB said in a statement, adding the bank was late by “75 full days”.
The ECB has since 2020 required banks to manage and disclose climate-related risks to their portfolios as fears grow that increasingly frequent and intense natural disasters could hit asset values.
READ: IMF flags monetary policy risks from climate change
The transition to a lower-carbon economy also adds an element of risk to investments in fossil fuel firms or energy-intensive sectors.
READ: Climate change and financial systems
‘Immaterial’
Credit Agricole expressed its “incomprehension” at the ECB move and said the fine related to only a small part of the bank’s work.
Climate risk is limited overall across the bank, according to the statement.
“This risk is immaterial at the Credit Agricole group level,” the bank said in a statement, adding that it had missed the ECB’s deadline since “responding to the ECB at the requested level of granularity required extensive work”.
“The group reiterates that it naturally identifies and takes climate and environmental risks into account in its models,” it said.
The ECB last Novemeber fined Spanish bank Abanca 187,650 euros for failing to identify and disclose climate risks on time.
