World's best bank for sustainable finance 2018: BNP Paribas

There are a few banks leading the way globally on sustainable finance – firms such as HSBC, Bank of America and Crédit Agricole – but only one that has committed itself in a way that no other bank can match.

This bank is turning down deals and pulling out of sectors that are not sustainable, as well as driving new sustainable finance initiatives across all of its businesses. In doing so, BNP Paribas sets an example of what all banks seeking to be the world’s best for sustainable finance could do.

What is perhaps unique to BNP Paribas is that sustainability was a passion that came from within. Several hundred employees across all the parts of its businesses began collectively to look at their sectors through a lens of sustainability.

“In key levels of middle management and below were professionals really passionate about environmental and social issues, and they each brought that to where they were doing business,” says Hervé Duteil, chief sustainability officer for the Americas.