Activists target Canadian banks with complaint

Increasing scrutiny: A sign for the Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto. The bank is among five in Canada facing questions over misrepresenting their climate response. — Reuters

Ottawa: A climate activist group is urging securities regulators to investigate Canada’s biggest banks over their green-finance claims and whether “inadequate or misleading” disclosures could be putting investors at risk.

In a complaint filed Tuesday with the Ontario Securities Commission and Quebec’s Autorite des Marches Financiers and seen by Bloomberg News, Investors for Paris Compliance alleges that the country’s five largest banks – Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) – have failed to make clear disclosures about the carbon-emissions impact of their green-lending activities.