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Industrial Composition of Syndicated Loans and Banks’ Climate Commitments

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  • Galina Hale
  • Brigid C. Meisenbacher
  • Fernanda Nechio

Abstract

In the past two decades, a number of banks joined global initiatives aimed to mitigate climate change by “greening” their asset portfolios. We study whether banks that made such commitments have a different emission exposure of their portfolios of syndicated loans than banks that did not. We rely on loan-level information with global coverage combined with country-industry information on emissions. We find that all banks have reduced their loan-emission exposures over the last 8 years. However, we do not find differences between banks that did and those that did not signal their sustainability goals, with the exception of early signers of Principles of Responsible Investments (PRI), who already had lower exposure to emissions through their syndicated lending. In addition, banks that signed PRI shortened the maturity of the loans extended to highly-emitting industries but only temporarily. Thus, we conclude that banks reduced their exposure to climate transition risks on average, but voluntary climate commitments did not contribute to syndicated loan reallocation away from highly-emitting sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Galina Hale & Brigid C. Meisenbacher & Fernanda Nechio, 2024. "Industrial Composition of Syndicated Loans and Banks’ Climate Commitments," Working Paper Series 2024-23, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedfwp:98621
    DOI: 10.24148/wp2024-23
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mueller, Isabella & Sfrappini, Eleonora, 2022. "Climate Change-Related Regulatory Risks and Bank Lending," Working Paper Series 2670, European Central Bank.
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    4. Ehlers, Torsten & Packer, Frank & de Greiff, Kathrin, 2022. "The pricing of carbon risk in syndicated loans: Which risks are priced and why?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    5. Ding, Xin & Ren, Yajing & Tan, Wenhao & Wu, Haomin, 2023. "Does carbon emission of firms matter for Bank loans decision? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
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    7. Degryse, Hans & Goncharenko, Roman & Theunisz, Carola & Vadasz, Tamas, 2023. "When green meets green," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
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    Cited by:

    1. Cristina Angelico & Enrico Bernardini, 2025. "Banks' carbon pledges: amazing or a maze?," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 906, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    climate; sustainable finance; green finance; bank lending; syndicated loans;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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