Award-winning UK specialist lender, Secure Trust Bank is pleased to announce that it has joined the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF).
The Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) is a collaboration between financial institutions worldwide to enable harmonised assessments and disclosures of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) associated with loans and investments. With more than 490 financial institutions from six continents, the group is rapidly expanding in North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific.
Secure Trust Bank's membership of PCAF underlines its ongoing commitment to monitor and manage its environmental impacts as outlined in its broader Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) strategy. Alongside the direct GHG emissions associated with the Group's operations, financed emissions are the indirect GHG emissions attributable to the Group due to the financing it provides to its customers.
Secure Trust Bank has already committed to cutting its direct emissions by 50% from 31 December 2021 to 31 December 2025 and has made good progress towards achieving that goal. Furthermore, in 2023, the Group continued to disclose its financed emissions across the vehicles it finances, details of which are included in its Annual Report.
Commenting on the decision to join PCAF, Chris Harper, Chief Risk Officer said: "As a forward-thinking institution, Secure Trust Bank is pleased to have joined the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials. By standardising our approach to GHG emissions accounting in line with PCAF's framework, we are taking a significant step towards greater transparency and accountability in our journey to a more sustainable future. Our involvement in PCAF underscores our dedication to responsible banking and supporting our customers as they manage the risks and opportunities relating to climate change."
"With the benefit of our PCAF membership, we now intend to further refine our financed emissions baseline and this will support the next phase of our journey. By becoming members of PCAF we are joining with other financial institutions who recognise that the consistent and accurate assessment and disclosure of carbon emissions associated with finance products is a key step to decarbonization preparing for a lower carbon operating environment."