South Africa’s banks are not passive participants in the transition. With R9.2 trillion in assets, their lending decisions help shape the direction and pace of the economy.
Our latest How cool is your bank? report assesses how effectively South Africa’s largest banks – Standard Bank, FirstRand, Absa, Nedbank and Investec – are integrating climate risk into their strategies, governance, financing decisions and disclosures. All five recognise climate change as a material issue and have policies, targets and governance structures intended to manage it. Yet across three editions of the report, commitments have accumulated faster than evidence that capital is moving in response.
The result is a growing disconnect between banks’ investment in sustainable finance and the lack of a corresponding reduction in financed emissions.
This year, we look beyond whether banks have made commitments. We ask whether those commitments are specific enough to measure, ambitious enough to change financing decisions and transparent enough for shareholders and other stakeholders to hold banks to account.
Join us for the launch of the 2026 How cool is your bank? report as we unpack the findings, examine where progress is – and isn’t – happening, and consider what the results mean for investors, banks and South Africa’s transition.
Date: 5 October 2026
Time: 11am – 12pm
Registration: https://bit.ly/4dhSCvB
