UK banks still committed to climate goals, Bank of England executive insists
A Bank of England executive has insisted that UK banks are still showing a “vibrant” commitment to climate goals despite the recent demise of a global net zero target-setting group.David Bailey, the executive director of prudential policy at the Bank’s regulatory arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), played down concerns surrounding the fact that significant lenders including HSBC and Barclays had followed their US peers in dropping membership of the UN-backed Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA).Those exits led to the closure of the once-lauded NZBA last month.“We’ve been focused on our responsibilities on the financial risks arising from climate change, and firms remain very actively engaged with us on that,” Bailey told the Guardian.Their engagement, he said “remains as vibrant … as it has over the past couple of years”.
American banks including JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs started ditching membership of the NZBA before Donald Trump’s inauguration last autumn.Some analysts have said the departures were meant to head-off “anti-woke” attacks from rightwing US politicians.HSBC and Barclays withdrew their membership by early August.The hollowed-out NZBA, which no longer had the backing of the world’s largest banks, launched a review into its future and announced plans to shut down in early October.But Bailey said the Bank of England was still monitoring climate risks and was leaving the door open to more climate stress tests that would gauge the banking sector’s preparedness for global heating disasters.
However, he said climate risks would have to be balanced against other emerging dangers.Regulators have, for example, been trying to get a handle on the potential risks linked to the boom in private credit, an unregulated corner of the financial sector that offers loans to businesses.“We do, of course, have to put climate risk into proportion alongside all the other risks.We can’t focus just on one risk … But we’ve got to focus on climate risk.It’s important.
And we continue to maintain the momentum of our work in that space,”The PRA was praised for being the first central bank to test climate preparedness across the financial sector in 2021, but was criticised for failing to introduce climate capital requirements that would force lenders to put aside funds to protect against climate-related losses including some mortgages and loans to heavy polluters,Bailey’s boss, Sam Woods, is stepping down in June as the head of the PRA,Bailey, who is described by peers as a dedicated and “straight-backed” member of the regulatory team, is thought to be the internal frontrunner to replace Woods,Katharine Braddick, a senior Barclays executive who has worked at the Treasury, has also been named as a potential contender for the £314,000-a-year role.
Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionIn the meantime, Bailey has been working on a raft of banking reforms meant to help appease the Labour government’s push to reduce red tape and boost growth across the financial sector.That includes rolling out the “strong and simple” framework, meant to ensure smaller lenders such as Metro Bank and Starling do not have to follow the same complex rules as large global banks.Bailey said it was one of the biggest changes to regulation in 30 years and would help smaller banks “compete and grow, and provide the really important services they do to households and businesses right across the UK.”
Royal College of Psychiatrists faces member backlash over Qatar partnership
The Royal College of Psychiatrists is facing a backlash from members over a controversial partnership with Qatar’s state healthcare provider.The college has signed a contract with the state-owned Hamad Medical Corporation to host international exams in Doha, enabling psychiatrists from across the Middle East and beyond to apply for membership.But the decision to hold clinical exams in a country with well-documented human rights abuses and in which same-sex relationships are criminalised has prompted more than 150 psychiatrists from leading UK hospitals and universities to sign a letter to the president of the college.“A commercial relationship with Qatar’s public health system, a de facto branch of its government, runs a risk of significant reputational damage to the college,” states the letter, which was sent in September.“Women are denied equal rights in a number of domains and there is no legal protection for domestic abuse,” the letter says
Having open conversations with boys is key to fending off the manosphere threat | Letters
It’s great to see that there are young men who are actively looking for alternatives to the kinds of masculinities displayed online (I’m a teenager who was lured into the manosphere. Here’s how to reach young men like me, 2 November). But to me, Josh Sargent’s article is about more than just the manosphere. It’s about the platforms that facilitate it, and how social media diverts attention away from things like reading and toward things that largely don’t matter. Josh says it himself: “in fairness, short-form content is slightly more engaging than Macbeth quotation flashcards”
Social media misinformation driving men to seek unneeded NHS testosterone therapy, doctors say
Social media misinformation is driving men to NHS clinics in search of testosterone therapy they don’t need, adding pressure to already stretched waiting lists, doctors have said.Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is a prescription-only treatment recommended under national guidelines for men with a clinically proven deficiency, confirmed by symptoms and repeated blood tests.But a wave of viral videos on TikTok and Instagram have begun marketing blood tests as a means of accessing testosterone as lifestyle supplement, advertising the hormone as a solution to problems such as low energy levels, poor concentration and reduced sex drive.Doctors warn taking testosterone unnecessarily can suppress the body’s natural hormone production, cause infertility, and increase the risk of blood clots, heart problems and mood disorders.The online demand for treatment is so great that medical professionals have now begun to see it mirrored in their clinics
‘Heroic actions are a natural tendency’: why bystander apathy is a myth
It was early morning on 1 January last year when Colin McGarva dived into a flooding river in Worcester to rescue an unconscious woman. McGarva said he didn’t think twice about the risk to himself, or the devastating loss his newborn son would suffer had he too been swept away by the fast-flowing icy waters.“I didn’t stop to think because the instinct – the instant reaction – is to help someone in need,” he said. “Someone’s life is an important thing. Helping is just something you have to do
Sex offender freed from Wandsworth prison by mistake is back in custody
A convicted sex offender who was released from prison by mistake a week ago is back in custody.Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, from Algeria, was accidentally freed on 29 October from Wandsworth prison in south London. He was arrested in Finsbury Park, north London, on Friday after police said they had received a call from a member of the public.The erroneous release, and that of another prisoner who was mistakenly freed, has led to mounting political pressure on David Lammy, the justice secretary, days after he introduced stringent checks for jails.Lammy had refused several times to say whether any more prisoners had been released in error in a bruising session of prime minister’s questions (PMQs) on Wednesday, having been ambushed with a string of questions
Tom Butler obituary
My friend Tom Butler, who has died of lymphoma after a short illness aged 73, was a former head of NHS mental health services in inner-city Manchester.Alongside his career in social work and mental health, Tom was a historian of social policy in the UK and author of several books, including Mental Health, Social Policy and the Law, published in 1985. As a young social worker, he pioneered the use of computer databases to improve child protection while working for Berkshire social services.He was born in Gloucester to Irish parents, Margaret (nee Bolger) and Patrick Butler, a draughtsman in the aircraft industry. Tom attended St Peter’s Roman Catholic junior school in Gloucester, where we first met
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