NEW YORK--Bank of America Corp. will form an environmental banking group to explore financing opportunities for renewable energy and resource conservation.
CEO Kenneth Lewis unveiled the development Tuesday during a speech to the North Carolina Emerging Issues Forum, Reuters reported. He also called for Congress to set federal carbon standards and create a cap-and-trade framework to allow large polluters to trade carbon credits with smaller polluters.
The announcement comes within a week of the company, which is the second-largest U.S. bank, pulling out of a venture with Britain's Climate Exchange, which operates the Chicago and European Climate Exchanges. The deal, announced last July, would have included an arrangement where the bank offered carbon offsets to its customers.
Lewis, in his remarks, said the bank would begin assessing the risk of carbon in its underwriting practices. The bank isn't alone in this respect: Last week, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley announced the formation of The Carbon Principles, which is a framework for assessing carbon-related risk in financing projects.
Last spring, the company committed $20 billion to help its business customers take advantage of opportunities presented by an emerging green economy.
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