Skip to main content
Menu Icon
Close

InfoBytes Blog

Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

Filter

Subscribe to our InfoBytes Blog weekly newsletter and other publications for news affecting the financial services industry.

  • Regulators release final principles for climate-related financial risk management

    On October 25, the Fed, OCC, and FDIC issued final interagency guidance titled Principles for Climate-Related Financial Risk Management for Large Financial Institutions. The principles are intended to help the largest institutions supervised by the Federal banking agencies, i.e., those with over $100 billion in assets, manage climate-related risk.

    These climate-related risks include both physical and transition risks. Physical risks include “hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and heatwaves, and chronic shifts in climate, etc.,” while transition risks “refer to stresses to institutions or sectors arising from the shifts in policy, consumer and business sentiment, or technologies associated with the changes… [towards] a lower carbon economy.”

    These climate-related risks affect the values of assets of liabilities and damage property, leading to a loss of income, defaults, and liquidity risks. The agencies created these principles to direct board of directors and managers make sound business practices with making progress toward mitigating climate-related financial risks.

    CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, a member of the FDIC Board of Directors, shared remarks on the final principles, noting that climate change poses a dual challenge to protect infrastructure and fortify the financial system. He also stressed the need for regulatory guidance to convey clear and practical rules. FDIC Chairman Gruenberg also shared a statement on the final principles, highlighting the FDIC’s focus on the financial aspects of climate change, clarifying its role in managing risks rather than setting climate policy and encouraging cooperation among federal banking agencies to ensure consistency in addressing climate-related financial risks.

    Bank Regulatory Federal Issues OCC FDIC Federal Reserve ESG Risk Management

  • EBA report recommends environmental and social risk enhancements for financial sector

    On October 12, the European Banking Authority (EBA) announced the publication of a report on the role of environmental and social risks in the prudential framework of credit institutions and investment firms. The report recommends risk-based enhancements to the risk categories of the Pillar 1 framework, which sets capital requirements, noting that environmental and social risks are “changing the risk picture for the financial sector” and are expected to be more prominent over time. The report puts forward recommendations for actions over the next three years as part of the revised capital requirements regulations. Specifically, the EBA is proposing to: (i) include environmental risks as part of stress testing programs; (ii) encourage the inclusion of environmental and social factors as part of external credit assessments by credit rating agencies; (iii) encourage the inclusion of environmental and social factors as part of due diligence requirements and valuation of immovable property collateral; (iv) require institutions to identify whether environmental and social factors constitute triggers of operational risk losses; and (v) develop environment-related concentration risk metrics as part of supervisory reporting. With respect to revisions to the Pillar 1 framework, the report proposes: (i) the possible use of scenario analysis to enhance the forward-looking elements of the prudential framework; (ii) changes to the role that transition plans could play in the future; (iii) reassessing the appropriateness of revising the internal ratings-based supervisory formula and the corresponding standardized approach for credit risk to better reflect environmental risk elements; and (iv) the introduction of environment-related concentration risk metrics under the Pillar 1 framework.

    Bank Regulatory EU Of Interest to Non-US Persons ESG Capital Requirements Stress Test

  • Bank to pay $25 million to settle alleged misleading ESG claims

    Securities

    On September 25, the SEC announced two enforcement actions against a subsidiary (respondent) of a German multinational investment bank and financial services company, in which the respondent agreed to pay a total of $25 million in penalties arising from (i) purportedly misleading statements respondent made regarding its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) program; and (ii) its failure to develop a mutual fund Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program. According to the order, respondent allegedly marketed itself to clients and investors as a leader in ESG that adhered to specific policies for integrating ESG considerations into its investments but failed to implement certain provisions of its global ESG integration policy. The order contains a number of statements that respondent made concerning its ESG program that the SEC found to be materially misleading.  For example, respondent allegedly represented through its ESG Policy that its research analysts were required to include financially material and reputation relevant ESG aspects into its valuation models, investment recommendations and research reports and consider material ESG aspects as part of their investment decision, but respondent’s internal analyses allegedly showed that research analysts have inconsistent levels of documented compliance with this requirement.  The SEC determined that respondent’s failure to implement certain policies and procedures violated multiple sections of the Advisers Act, including Section 206(2), “which prohibits an investment adviser, directly or indirectly, from engaging ‘in any transaction, practice, or course of business which operates as a fraud or deceit upon any client or prospective client.’”

    Through the ESG order, respondent has agreed to pay a $19 million civil penalty and to cease and desist from committing any further violations of the violated sections of the Advisors Act. The SEC also charged respondent with a separate Anti-Money Laundering order, for failure to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act and FinCen regulations. Respondent did not admit nor deny the SEC’s claims.

    Securities SEC Enforcement ESG Anti-Money Laundering Bank Secrecy Act FinCEN Settlement

  • SEC charges company with ESG policy violations

    Securities

    On November 22, the SEC announced a settlement with a Delaware-based investment adviser (respondent) resolving allegations that the company violated federal laws concerning the investment process that the respondent’s equity group utilized while advising an environmental, social and governance (ESG) separately managed account strategy and two ESG mutual funds. According to the order, from April 2017 until February 2020, the respondent allegedly had several policy and procedure failures involving the ESG research its investment teams used to select and monitor securities. Specifically, from April 2017 to June 2018, the respondent allegedly failed to have any written policies and procedures for ESG research in one product, and when policies and procedures were established, it allegedly failed to abide by them consistently. The SEC found, among other things, that the respondent’s policies and procedures required its personnel to complete a questionnaire for every company it planned to include in each product’s investment portfolio prior to the selection. However, personnel completed many of the ESG questionnaires after securities were already selected for inclusion and relied on previous ESG research, which allegedly was often conducted in a different manner than what was required in its policies and procedures. The SEC alleged that the respondents violated provisions of Section 206(4) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and Rule 206(4)-7. Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, the respondent agreed to a censure and to pay a $4 million penalty. The order also provides that the respondent must cease and desist from committing or causing any violations and any future violations of Section 206(4) of the Advisers Act and Rule 206(4)-7 promulgated thereunder.

    Securities SEC Enforcement ESG

  • States launch investigation into banks’ ESG investing and banking

    State Issues

    On October 19, a coalition of 19 state attorneys general, led by Missouri, Arizona, Kentucky, and Texas, announced that six large U.S. banks were served civil investigative demands (CIDs) asking for information related to their involvement with the U.N.’s Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). The Missouri AG’s office, which has led the opposition against ESG (environmental, social, governance) investing and banking practices, stated that NZBA-member banks are required to set emissions reduction targets in their lending and investment portfolios to reach net zero by 2050. According to the Missouri AG, the NZBA serves to “starve companies engaged in fossil fuel-related activities of credit on national and international markets” by requiring banks to cede authority to the U.N. The CIDs seek information from the banks on topics related to, among other things, (i) their involvement in affiliated global climate initiatives; (ii) how NZBA and Principles for Responsible Banking objectives have been incorporated into their operations; and (iii) the extent to which the banks have fulfilled their “commitment to ‘facilitat[e] the necessary transition in the real economy through prioritizing client engagement and offering products and services to support clients’ transition,’” as well as their “commitment to ‘engag[e] on corporate and industry (financial and real economy) action, as well as public policies, to help support a net-zero transition of economic sectors in line with science and giving consideration to associated social impacts.’” 

    State Issues State Attorney General ESG U.N. CID

Upcoming Events