MONTH-IN-BRIEF (Nov 2020)
Banking Law
NYDFS Issues Industry Letter Addressing Climate Change and Financial Risks
By Jeffrey Barringer, McGlinchey Stafford PLLC
On October 29, 2020, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) issued an Industry Letter highlighting the risks of climate change, the impact of climate change on regulated entities and setting forth the NYDFS’s expectations regarding how regulated entities should begin addressing those risks and impacts. The Letter was issued thirteen months after the NYDFS joined the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System and five and a half months after the NYDFS hired its first Director of Sustainability and Climate Initiatives, Dr. Yue (Nina) Chen. The Letter also indicates that the NYDFS is in the process of developing a “strategy for integrating climate-related risks into its supervisory mandate” and that the NYDFS will work with other financial regulators, both domestic and international, in developing its climate change supervisory practices.
