N°23-66: Climate Transition Risks of Banks

We develop a bottom-up measure of U.S. banks' exposures to climate transition risks from the carbon footprint of their syndicated loan portfolios. The measure reveals significant variation in risk exposures across banks and over time. Bank exposures declined over time, especially since the Paris Agreement. This effect stems from a re-balancing of bank loan portfolios, with more lending to low-emission borrowers (not less lending to high-emission borrowers). Banks with higher risk exposures exhibit more climate-related disclosures in their earnings calls, but not in their Form 10-Ks. Risk exposures correlate with bank-level climate betas, which reflect the sensitivity of bank returns to the returns of a stranded asset index.