Banks Push Back Against EU’s Sudden Retreat From ESG Agenda

The European Banking Federation is warning that the sheer scale of a proposed rollback of the bloc’s ESG rules will make it harder for lenders to analyze credit risk.

Banks in Europe have been waiting for years for their clients to start providing hundreds of data points under new ESG reporting rules. But as the European Union now looks set to dramatically water down planned regulations, banks fear they’ll be left without the necessary tools to conduct proper credit risk analyses, according to the EBF, whose members include BNP Paribas SA, UniCredit SpA and Deutsche Bank AG.