The clients of Swiss banks appreciate their efforts to become more sustainable yet demand more transparency about what it really amounts to.
Sustainability is the catchword that almost all Swiss banks have been pushing recently, with ESG criteria and sustainable finance the key concepts upon which they are building their offering.
Are clients interested at all? It seems so, according to the findings of a study under the headline of «Sustainability and Banks» (release in German) compiled by gfs.bern and published by the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) on Tuesday.
The Younger Seem More Critical
The study authors polled 1,208 people in May 2020. Banking clients in general seem happy with the services offered under the heading of sustainability. Two thirds of the surveyed are more or less satisfied with the sustainability efforts of their banks, with younger clients less satisfied than older clients. Almost a third of the under-40s are unhappy, the study revealed, which may mirror the discontent among young people with respect to climate change.
In the age group of 40 to 64 years, the share of discontent is 15 percent, or less than half that among young clients. Among the older clients (64 years plus), only every tenth is unhappy about sustainability efforts.
More Openess Required
Despite the overall agreement with the industry’s efforts, clients wish to get more information about aspects of sustainability from their banks when being advised. Most surveyed agreed that their banks should inform clients about how sustainable their portfolios are, invest in firms with a clear sustainability plan and recommend sustainable assets as a first choice.
The survey also showed that people would like the state to make sustainable investments more attractive through tax incentives, to simplify such investments for pension funds and to demand more transparency from all companies in respect to sustainable investments.
Public Policy Push
The latter demand has already been adopted by Hans-Peter Portmann, a lawmaker from Zurich who filed a demand for more transparency in the fall of 2019.
Portmann, who works for LGT, wants the government to reward banks that are ready to make their efforts to invest in sustainability transparent and that would contribute to the design of an industry standard.
