Are Bloomberg’s Top 20 Green Banks Really Green?

The World’s Top Green Banks 2012

First Published Date: June 1, 2013 AdawnJournal.com

Recently, Bloomberg published its annual rankings of the world’s greenest banks for 2012. Here is the top ten green banks on that list:

1. CITIGROUP

2. BANCO SANTADER

3. JPMORGAN CHASE

4. MITSUBISHI FINANCIAL GROUP

5. CREDIT SUISSE GROUP

6. GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP

7. DEUTSCHE BANK

8. MIZUHO FINANCIAL GROUP

9. LLOYDS BANKING GROUP

10. BARCLAYS

Source: Bloomberg

The full list can be accessed here. Canada’s Royal Bank (18th position), TD Bank (27th position), CIBC (37th position), and National Bank (39th position) are also on the list.

However, there are wider arrays of disagreements on how this list was constructed. To qualify to be considered for the top 20 and to be on this list of 40 banks, banks have to have a market capitalization of at least $10B alone with listed on a major stock exchange. Only 62 banks from 23 countries were able to qualify.

Also, Bloomberg’s assessments made of these banks’ participation on clean energy project lendings and reducing their own carbon footprints. But Bloomberg ignored these banks’ own dirty energy projects, such as their support for fossil fuel and nuclear power.

Some of Bloomberg’s top green banks are listed on this Top 20 Climate Killer Banks list by BankTrack for destroying the environment. Here is an article for more on this by Yann Louvel. After reading all these, draw your own conclusions if these banks are really green or not.