KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 20 (Bernama) -- Morrow Sodali and Nestor Advisors, a Morrow Sodali Company, has announced the publication of “Governance of sustainability in the largest global banks: A study of the top 30 European and North American banks” which examines the sustainability governance practices of the 30 largest European and North American banks.
“Sustainability is one of the big issues facing banks and their leadership. Shareholders and various stakeholders, including regulators, expect banks to be proactive in sustainability.
“In order to deliver in these areas, global banks have reshaped existing governance and organisational arrangements and have developed some new ones. Our Report examines these arrangements and comes up with interesting, sometimes counterintuitive findings,” said the report’s leading author, Stilpon Nestor in a statement.
Among these findings, the issue of board skills in relation to sustainability was highlighted. All the banks interviewed do not see having sustainability experts on the board as a priority but to make their existing board members more cognizant in the sustainability area emphasising on the development of director skills.
One interesting finding of the report is that banks further advanced in the “maturity spectrum” have done away with special committees and discuss sustainability as part of the general strategy and risk appetite.
Another key finding relates to the role of management in ensuring all business functions strengthen their capabilities to understand sustainability in which most banks worldwide have created senior management committees to oversee this transversal work.
Most banks have also included sustainability parameters in their executive remuneration approach.
The report finds that in the best performing ones, sustainability considerations have a relatively significant “weight” among other factors in determining variable compensation.
-- BERNAMA
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