Addressing Greenwashing in Financial Services
It is thought that there is still an issue within the banking sector that there is greater need for transparency around green finance and sustainable banking initiatives. A recent investigation from ShareAction found that only one-in-five of Europe’s 20 largest banks published information on green finance target calculations.
Greenwashing refers to the disinformation disseminated by an organisation to present a sustainably responsible public image for the benefit of that organisation.
According to a report by the World Economic Forum, experts have observed that greenwashing has become more common in recent years, due to increased consumer demand for environmentally friendly goods and services. Whilst proving greenwashing offers its own complexities, transparency plays a role in building the consumer trust.
In this webcast, our panel discusses greenwashing in the banking sector and what role responsible bankers play to ensure trust is not compromised, how reporting can be improved and what steps can be taken to avoid greenwashing in the banking sector.
This is a joint webcast with The Chartered Banker Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University and ICAEW North West.
Chair
Tanya leads the development of the Institute’s portfolio of qualifications, education, and training, ensuring they are supporting the needs of professional bankers globally. Her remit includes delivery of the Institute’s strategic vision with continued growth and utilization of the Institute’s Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) Academy.
In joining the Institute, Tanya brings over 25 years of banking experience from NatWest and RBS, with skills and capabilities across Learning and Development, Professional Qualifications, Digital enablement, Leadership and most recently CX and EX. She is a certified SAFe 5 Agilist and Executive Coach.
Panellists
Polly leads the ESG in Financial Services working party at the ICAEW, responding to pivotal consultations under the UK Green Finance Strategy, like the recent HMT consultation on ESG ratings providers and the FCA’s consultation on Sustainable Disclosure Requirements and Investment Labels.
She authors a number of articles for the Institute and its 60,000 members on sustainability. She is committed to exploring the risks and opportunities in regulating ESG in the UK, liaising with regulators such as the FCA, FRC and IOSCO.
Prior to this, Polly specialised in structured finance and asset backed securitisation at PwC, helping firms raise debt market funding and buy/sell asset pools. She qualified as a Chartered Accountant (ACA) with PwC London within banking and capital markets and investment management.
Jonathan Heybrock is a senior analyst at the Green Finance Institute. He works across the Institute’s portfolio of coalitions and projects, particularly focusing on green finance regulation. Over the past few years, he has been working as part of the Secretariat team for the Green Technical Advisory Group (GTAG) which has been advising the UK Government on the development of a UK Green Taxonomy, a regulatory framework to address greenwashing.
Thursday 8th February 2024
13:00 - 14:00 GMT
To book your place click here.
If you have any questions, or difficulty registering, please contact [email protected]