New OCC Guidance Puts Banks on Notice: Time to Take Climate Risk Seriously

Other Financial Regulators Should Follow OCC’s Lead And Issue Their Own Supervisory Guidance For Climate-Related Financial Risk

In response to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issuing draft supervisory guidance on managing climate-related financial risk for large banks, Evergreen Action Campaigns Director Lena Moffitt issued the following statement:

“The writing is on the wall: Wall Street’s decades-long high risk fossil fuel spending spree could sink our entire economy unless regulators take fast action. The draft supervisory guidance issued today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is an important step towards protecting working families from the threat of a climate-fueled financial crash. The guidance makes clear that all major banks must now take climate change, and the very real threat it poses, seriously—including via potential limits on their lending to climate-risky assets. Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu should use his position on the board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and as a member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council to push for similar action across financial regulatory agencies.”

###