The banks give greater consideration to sustainability aspects in their lending to corporates. However, FI sees a need for more transparency and comparability in the area of sustainability.
Sustainability-related risks and opportunities do not differ from the other risks and opportunities that can be linked to financial firms’ operations. Therefore, sustainability should not be managed in limited areas of corporate governance, but rather be an integral part of corporate governance as a whole. In this survey, FI studied how financial firms describe their management of sustainability aspects in corporate governance and how these aspects are integrated into the operations.
Finansinspektionen is publishing today two reports on sustainability. Together, they serve as the report to the Government that FI was tasked with earlier in the year on the continued work with sustainability issues, how these issues are linked to financial regulation and supervision and how supervision can contribute to sustainable development in a constructive manner.
Sweden and Swedish financial institutions have small exposures to climate risks. This means that the current risk that climate changes will cause problems for financial stability is low. However, there is a need for more information as well as improved transparency surrounding climate-related risks within the sector. Financial institutions also need to develop stress tests and analyses in order to identify what kind of consequences could arise from these risks and how such consequences could be prevented.
Finansinspektionen (FI) has been commissioned by the Government to report on the bank's internal rules regarding credit granting to companies from the perspective of the environment and sustainability. If necessary, FI shall present proposals for measures that can be included in the banks' credit granting process to promote such a perspective.