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WASHINGTON—Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael J. Hsu today released the following statement in support of the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) Glasgow Declaration.

The harmful impacts from climate change are real, recognize no geographic boundaries, and cannot be ignored. Since the OCC joined the NGFS this year, we have been working in a variety of areas to support climate change efforts.

As the Acting Comptroller of the Currency, I have prioritized the need to incorporate climate change into risk management frameworks to address the safety and soundness of the federal banking system. The OCC is working to take a leadership role to understand these significant and complex challenges. We plan to develop high-level climate risk management supervisory expectations for large banks and hope to issue framework guidance for comment by the end of the year.

In addition, I have appointed the agency’s first Climate Change Risk Officer to significantly expand our capacity to collaborate with stakeholders and promote improvements in the OCC’s supervision of climate change risk management. The OCC also joined the NGFS to share best practices and contribute to the development of climate risk management amongst central banks and supervisors in the financial sector on a global scale.

The OCC supports the NGFS Glasgow Declaration and the group’s collective efforts to address climate change-related risks. As a member of NGFS and through our own initiatives, we will continue to accelerate our response to the potential safety and soundness impacts of climate risk, consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement and U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 26). The OCC will continue to engage with the NGFS workstreams, the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Risks and our fellow supervisors to advance supervisory capabilities and standardize supervisory practices. We will work to ensure the resiliency of the banking system in response to climate-related financial risks through our participation on the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) and implementation of recommendations in the FSOC Climate Change Report.

Our commitment to acting on climate change risk in the national banking system will not waver. We look forward to continued work with our fellow members of the NGFS and other bodies to ensure banks are prepared for the challenges ahead.

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