Keynote: Jean-Laurent Bonnafe, CEO of BNP Paribas - Principles for Responsible Banking

So, good morning to you all, and especially to the signatory banks of the Principles for Responsible Banking. We are here today and very pleased to welcome you to our New York offices. BNP Paribas has built a strong and diversified presence in the United States with 14,000 people to support its clients. Bank of the West on the West Coast serves over 2 million individuals and small and mid-sized businesses through a network of 600 branches and business centers. Our corporate and institutional clients are served by our corporate and international banking franchise, which has a presence in the main US cities. The bank also offers asset management services and services in real estate and vehicle fleet. We are here today mainly as bankers, but also as representatives of civil society, to celebrate the launch of the Principles for Responsible Banking, which we signed yesterday at United Nations headquarters. This is really a milestone for the banking industry, thanks to the leadership of UNEP FI and the hard work of those thirty founding members over the past eighteen months. As 130 banks from 46 countries, jointly representing 83 trillion dollars in assets, have committed to transforming a banking industry that plays such a crucial role in ensuring a sustainable future for all. Our world is very concerned about climate change, biodiversity, growing inequality, and regional imbalances. As banks, we are here to serve our clients but also to contribute to the necessary transitions towards a better future. The commitment we signed yesterday reflects this purpose. Together, we represent more than one-third of the banking industry worldwide. As a founding member of the Principles, I am very proud and impressed by the great success of this initiative. We have indeed agreed on a single framework that embeds sustainability at the strategic, portfolio, and transaction levels, and across all business areas. By signing the Principles, 130 banks have committed to align their strategies with the Paris Climate Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and so contribute to ending poverty and hunger, promoting equality, and protecting the planet from climate change. This is totally in line with what we want to achieve at BNP Paribas, as we have put contributing to the SDGs at the center of our strategy. We monitor our results. At the end of 2018, the total financing provided by BNP Paribas that contributes to the energy transition and to the SDGs was 168 billion euros. To give you an illustration of one specific SDG, number 14 on life below water, we have committed to finance in a responsible way those activities that impact the ocean, and we are proactively contributing to the ocean's preservation. For example, we have decided to finance the ecological transition of shipping fleets by up to 1 billion euros by 2025. More specifically regarding the climate, we decided back in 2011 to put the fight against climate change at the forefront of our priorities. We financed more than 15 billion euros in renewable energy in 2018 and were among the top three issuers of green bonds in euros. I am convinced that a robust sustainability strategy has to be transparent and managed through meaningful metrics and targets. Indeed, transparency is critical for stakeholders to better understand the tangible outcomes of our strategies. The Principles will contribute to the social legitimacy and trust in the banking industry by defining banks' purpose, role, and responsibility in the economy and society of the 21st century, and by ensuring banks' accountability regarding their contribution to society. Defining the Principles for Responsible Banking was not only the task of the founding member banks; it was the result of a larger and open consultation which allowed more than 500 stakeholders to contribute to the final version of the document. Thanks to this comprehensive and inclusive process, the Principles are universal and can be applied to all banks, whatever their size, business model, or starting point with regards to sustainability. This is really key because, at the end of the day, what we are aiming for is not to be a leader in sustainability, but to join forces with all financial institutions in order to have an impact and to collectively contribute to building a more sustainable world. I wish further great success for the new Principles for Responsible Banking, and I hope we signatory banks will become a real community, one that will allow us to share best practices and be inspired by innovative and ambitious strategies and actions. Looking around at the distinguished guests here today, I am all the more convinced that wherever we come from, we all share the will to accelerate our contribution to a more sustainable future through collaborative and innovative solutions. Thank you to all of you and have a great success.