UBS Boss Ermotti Says Banks Are Not the ‘Climate Police’

UBS Group AG Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti said policymakers shouldn’t rely on banks as a de facto ‘climate police’ and should themselves provide the appropriate incentives for companies to decarbonize.

The net zero transition “implies very difficult trade-offs” that will require the right balance be struck between government action and market-led incentives, Ermotti said via video link at a conference in Lugano, Switzerland on Thursday hosted by an association of Swiss sustainable finance professionals. Unfortunately, the financial sector “is an attractive target for policymakers” that wish to “divert at least some of the blame of unpopular decisions to banks,” Ermotti said.