The European Central Bank has imposed €7.55 million in penalty payments on Crédit Agricole S.A. after finding the bank failed to comply with a supervisory decision requiring a thorough assessment of its climate-related and environmental risks.
The ECB’s February 2024 decision required the bank to conduct a materiality assessment of its exposures, but Crédit Agricole did not meet the requirement for 75 full days in 2024, triggering daily fines. The regulator stressed that the action forms part of a broader push to hold euro-area banks accountable for climate risk management, marking a shift from supervisory guidance to binding measures with financial consequences.
As this represents the ECB’s second enforcement case in this area, it further confirms that climate change mitigation and adaptation are becoming increasingly integral not only to the real economy but, even more so, to the financial sector. Climate change introduces both transition and physical risks that must be properly identified, measured, and managed, while also creating new opportunities for forward-looking organizations.
In this context, MACS supports its clients with a range of dedicated climate-related services, including the determination of key KPIs for their own portfolios and investment products—covering Scope 3 emissions, physical climate risk assessments, and EU Taxonomy compliance.
The original article can be found here: ECB imposes periodic penalty payments on Crédit Agricole for failing to sufficiently identify climate risks.