"Davos 2020: Bankers push back against climate action calls", 21 January 2020

The leaders of major banks and other financial companies have rejected suggestions that they are not doing enough to combat climate change and resisted calls that they should refuse to work with clients that are major polluters...

Mike Corbat, chief executive of Citibank, said it was not the job of banks to ensure that companies were adopting environmentally friendly business models by unilaterally cutting off finance for polluting businesses...

...David Solomon, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, which recently worked on the initial public offering of oil company Saudi Aramco, said his bank would not "draw a line" by refusing to advise clients that are major polluters...

...Brian Duperreault, chief executive officer of AIG, echoed Mr Solomon's line: while he stressed that AIG is embracing sustainability (partly under pressure of its own employees), he also said that he is not ready to impose a blanket ban on offering insurance to coal companies yet...

...But other asset managers, such as Hiromichi Mizuno, chief investment officer of Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund took a different line. He told a Davos panel that it is imperative for asset managers to support green finance now, almost irrespective of consumer pressure or government rules.