Bank of England warns climate risks to become 'persistent drag' on profitability

Stress tests

James Murray
clock • 8 min read

A top HSBC executive may have downplayed the threat posed by climate risks, but the Bank of England's new stress test exercise suggests financial firms' profits would be hit.

The timing may be entirely coincidental, but it makes it hard not to interpret it as a direct riposte. Just days after HSBC Asset Management's head of responsible investment Stuart Kirk offered a blistering critique of regulatory efforts to enhance the financial sector's climate risk management - "the amount of work these people make me do"; "markets are crashing around our ears today for nothing to do with climate whatsoever"; why are banks "being asked to look at something that is going to happen in 20 and 30 years hence"? - the Bank of England today published the results of its latest ex...

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