Financial Services
As a result, pressure has grown on financial institutions to clarify their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments and strategies in recent years. Investors are increasingly seeking sustainable financial products and ESG investing, while consumers are holding banks to higher ESG standards, and new and evolving regulations call for greater transparency and disclosure of ESG-related data.
In the UK, for example, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is clear that the financial sector has an important role to play in helping the economy adapt to a more sustainable long-term future and that consumers need to be able to rely on regulated firms to take ESG seriously. In 2023, the regulator expressed its concern over the ‘poor’ quality of current ESG measures throughout the industry and warned that it could issue fines to organisations that don’t enforce adequate ESG standards.1
Similarly, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been increasingly active in the ESG space given the importance of sustainability performance to investors. In 2021, the SEC announced the creation of a Climate and ESG Task Force, which has brought ESG-related disclosure actions against several high-profile public companies. In 2022, the SEC also proposed new rules that would require financial organisations to provide climate-related disclosures in their registration statements and annual reports.
To meet the expectations of investors, consumers and regulators, financial organisations must adapt their IT systems to systematically collect, aggregate, and report on a broad range of ESG data. Moving toward this goal will require significant changes to the IT infrastructure, from applications to data integration, architecture, and governance, and banks must also grapple with integrating ESG data into existing processes, such as credit approvals and decision making.
But many financial institutions still have some way to go in becoming more sustainable by establishing ESG targets. The World Resources Institute reported in 2019 that less than half of the world’s 50 largest banks have established sustainability targets, and their definitions of what counts as “sustainable” vary greatly.2 What’s more, among the 23 banks that were reported to have sustainable finance targets, their average annual level of fossil fuel financing was nearly twice as large as their annual commitments to sustainable finance.
Streamline print operations:
Despite a recent shift to remote working, the financial sector remains reliant on physical workplaces that continue to be full of outdated tech and monolithic printers. Shifting to a managed print service will not only free up space in the workplace but can also help financial institutions benefit from real-time analytics, reduce waste and lower costs across the business. What’s more, with HP Print Security Advisory Services, credentialed cyber experts can assess your organisation’s complex compliance needs and build a robust security plan to help secure your printers and data.
Adopt carbon-neutral computing services.
Financial organisations can also make strides towards sustainability by reducing the carbon footprint of their fleet of devices. HP offsets the end-to-end carbon footprint of eligible HP PCs, so devices remain carbon neutral through end of use. Your organisation will also receive a report so you can gain transparency into the sustainability of your technology usage, while HP experts can also help you to understand and comply with the constantly changing environmental regulations.
As a paper-intensive industry, First American recognised the need for greater visibility of its widely distributed fleet of some 7,000 printers. It wanted to obtain business data to help improve its print environment, optimise and right-size print devices, identify areas of improvement and ultimately reduce costs. By teaming with HP to replace multiple print servers with one central, scalable solution, First American benefited from comprehensive reporting and analytics. This reduced the administrative burden and waste thanks to HP’s Automatic Toner Replenishment (ATR) programme, as well as significantly reducing print costs across the organisation.
1 https://www.irmagazine.com/reporting/fca-warns-fines-may-be-issued-over-poor-esg-standards2 https://www.wri.org/insights/how-are-banks-doing-sustainable-finance-commitments-not-good-enough
