Campaigning group Make My Money Matter has written to key UK watchdogs, calling on them to probe alleged greenwashing by the top UK banks and reiterating calls for banks to cease financing fossil fuel expansion.
The letter, which specifically targets Barclays, HSBC, Santander, NatWest and Lloyds, says there is a mismatch between the banks’ public climate strategies and failure to meet 1.5 degrees global warming targets.
The letter, which has been written to the FCA, Competition and Markets Authority and Advertising Standard Authority, argues that this could mislead its customers.
The Make My Money Matter group, co-founded by film director Richard Curtis, said: “The imagery and relative prominence of climate and sustainability in publicly available brand assets, in contrast to a lack of transparency around their unsustainable activity – which could create a misleading picture to the public.
The timing of the letter chimes with the FCA Sustainability Disclosure Requirements coming into force, a range of measures which include rules addressing anti-greenwashing, naming and marketing, fund labelling, disclosures and distribution that asset managers and finance firms must adhere to.
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On the group’s call for banks to end financing fossil fuels, the letter says: “Whilst banks may indeed be reducing their own financed emissions at portfolio level, their inadequate financing policies on dangerous fossil fuel expansion activity mean that they can at the same time continue to finance companies causing long-term harm to people and planet – in a way that may not be clear to customers.”
Tony Burdon, CEO of Make My Money Matter, said, “Our five largest high street banks all financed companies involved in fossil fuel expansion in 2023, the hottest year on record.
“But we believe that their climate and sustainability statements create a situation where the public believes them to be more sustainable than they actually are. We look forward to hearing whether the regulators agree and what next steps they may take.”
Last year, actress Olivia Colman stared in a slick and potty-mouthed campaign for the money-focused campaign group, highlighting the damaging relationship between pensions and the fossil fuel industry.
