By Lawrence White
LONDON (Reuters) – HSBC has appointed Julian Wentzel as Group Chief Sustainability Officer, the bank said on Friday, confirming the banker in HSBC’s key role advising clients on their climate policies.
Wentzel, who joined HSBC in 2015, had been performing the role on an interim basis following the departure of Celine Herweijer last November after the role was removed from the bank’s executive committee.
Wentzel will instead report into HSBC Chief Financial Officer Pam Kaur, a spokesperson for the bank told Reuters following the announcement.
HSBC’s replacement of an expert in sustainability matters like Herweijer, with a career banker like Wentzel, could signal a troubling shift in its priorities, climate activists said at the time of his interim appointment in November.
Wentzel’s previous experience as head of global banking for HSBC’s Middle East, North Africa and Turkey business, where he advised clients on their climate and sustainability policies, will inform his work in his new role, he said on Friday in a post on networking site LinkedIn.
HSBC last January unveiled its first net-zero transition plan as part of its commitment to reach the target by 2050, laying out its aims to help the bank’s heaviest-emitting clients decarbonise their businesses.
Banks have pledged to spend trillions of dollars in an effort to help cap global warming, but some of the biggest are saying that without clear policy direction from governments, it will be hard to meet the goal.
Banks’ commitment to climate goals has also come under scrutiny following the return of climate sceptic Donald Trump as U.S. President, with several Wall Street financial services companies leaving the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.
The appointment comes amid sweeping changes to the bank’s management ranks under Chief Executive Georges Elhedery, who has reorganised HSBC’s operating divisions and trimmed its investment banking business in the West in a bid to simplify the lender.
HSBC is not alone among big UK banks in reshuffling its executives in charge of climate matters. Last month Reuters reported that Barclays’ sustainability head Laura Barlow left the bank.
(Reporting By Lawrence White; Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and Jane Merriman)
