The European Central Bank announced that it has fined Paris-based international banking and investment group Cr\u00e9dit Agricole more than \u20ac7.5 million (USD$9 million) for failing to meet a deadline set by the central bank to assess the materiality of its climate-related and environmental (C&E) risks.<\/p>\n
The announcement marks the second climate-risk related fine imposed by the ECB, following a \u20ac187,650 penalty on Spanish bank ABANCA in November 2025<\/a> for failing to conduct a materiality assessment of its C&E risks.<\/p>\n The banking penalties form part of a multi-year process by the ECB to ensure that banks properly identify, assess and manage C&E risks, starting with its publication of a guide outlining its supervisory expectations around climate-related and environmental risks in 2020, followed by a climate stress test<\/a> conducted in 2022, which the ECB said\u00a0indicated that banks urgently need to accelerate the incorporation of climate risk into their risk management frameworks, and that banks remain heavily exposed to emissions-intensive industries.<\/p>\n In November 2022, following the stress test results, the ECB sent feedback letters to banks, outlining timelines for adequately managing their climate-related and environmental (C&E) risks, and in cases where the deadlines were not met, the central bank imposed binding requirements providing for the accrual of periodic penalty payments as an enforcement measure.<\/p>\n According to the ECB, the periodic penalty imposed on Cr\u00e9dit Agricole follows a deadline set by the central bank for Cr\u00e9dit Agricole to conduct a materiality assessment of its C&E risks by May 31, 2024, with the ECB saying that the bank failed to meet the materiality assessment requirement for 75 days. The ECB said that penalty payment decisions are based on factors including the materiality of the infringement, the duration of the breach and the daily turnover of the supervised entity.<\/p>\n In a statement provided to ESG Today, Cr\u00e9dit Agricole said that it \u201cacknowledges the ECB\u2019s decision,\u201d but that it \u201ccan only express its lack of understanding regarding a purely administrative penalty,\u201d noting that the \u201cdecision relates solely to Cr\u00e9dit Agricole\u2019s response time to one of ECB\u2019s requirements,\u201d and that \u201cthe ECB itself acknowledged that it was very difficult to respond to this specific and highly granular request according to the imposed schedule.\u201d Cr\u00e9dit Agricole also said that \u201cthe ECB underlined that Cr\u00e9dit Agricole had met all of its requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n Cr\u00e9dit Agricole added:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Group specifies that this decision does not concern, in any way, its commitments and concrete actions in favor of climate and energy transition.\u201d<\/p>\n