On October 25, the Fed, OCC, and FDIC issued final interagency guidance titled Principles for Climate-Related Financial Risk Management for Large Financial Institutions. The principles are intended to help the largest institutions supervised by the Federal banking agencies, i.e., those with over $100 billion in assets, manage climate-related risk.

These climate-related risks include both physical and transition risks. Physical risks include “hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and heatwaves, and chronic shifts in climate, etc.,” while transition risks “refer to stresses to institutions or sectors arising from the shifts in policy, consumer and business sentiment, or technologies associated with the changes… [towards] a lower carbon economy.”

These climate-related risks affect the values of assets of liabilities and damage property, leading to a loss of income, defaults, and liquidity risks. The agencies created these principles to direct board of directors and managers make sound business practices with making progress toward mitigating climate-related financial risks.

CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, a member of the FDIC Board of Directors, shared remarks on the final principles, noting that climate change poses a dual challenge to protect infrastructure and fortify the financial system. He also stressed the need for regulatory guidance to convey clear and practical rules. FDIC Chairman Gruenberg also shared a statement on the final principles, highlighting the FDIC’s focus on the financial aspects of climate change, clarifying its role in managing risks rather than setting climate policy and encouraging cooperation among federal banking agencies to ensure consistency in addressing climate-related financial risks.