Global banks are going green. ESG as a business opportunity is A&M’s perspective to evaluate revenue growth opportunities for banks in their journey to accompany clients toward net zero transition. Competition is high, and client win rate and margin protection are at stake.

Global professional services firm, Alvarez & Marsal (“A&M”), has published the findings of the inaugural Green PACE rankings, proprietary research that ranks how the top 25 European and North American banks are capitalising on sustainability as a business opportunity. The report found that UK banks are outperforming their European and US peers on the transition to net zero, with NatWest coming out at the top of the table, by more than a 10% margin. The outperformance by British banks, and NatWest in particular, can be put down to strong investment and commitment across for capability areas evaluated including green product offering, alignment targets, client orientation and involvement in transition execution.

In a recent Quartz article, A&M Managing Director Julie McLaughlin was quoted about shareholders' influence on climate change from an ESG perspective.

The demands on all companies to report on ESG issues are louder and more persistent than ever before. This trend has had a cascade effect on every oil and gas company, large or small, public or private — even private equity-owned. It is now an expectation that every company reports at least basic information about its most important ESG issues and report them in a clear and transparent way.