People think banks that operate in developing countries like Brazil shouldn’t be worried about environmental issues. This is not the case. Banks in developing countries don’t have that certainty. There’s a growing number of people that feel that banks should develop their own expertise when looking at environmental risk. Banco Real’s experience with environmental risk started in 2002 where they set up an environmental risk area. Financial credit analysts are trained on environmental issues and work together detecting possible problems at the companies that borrow from the bank. Brazil is a society where NGOs and the government put pressures so that there are real financial risks that occur. Banco Real’s vision on environmental risk and on sustainability goes beyond regulation. There is no central bank regulation in Brazil that requires banks to look at environmental issues when they’re making loans. Banco Real looks at it on a proactive basis for good business reasons
