For the first time, banks around the world can offer all employees access to high-quality, dedicated training to equip them with knowledge and skills that are essential to manage today’s challenges – through the new Principles for Responsible Banking Academy (PRB Academy).
Aligning banks’ strategy and practice with the objectives of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement will require urgently building the capacity and capabilities of the banking sector globally.
The objective of the PRB Academy, which launched today at UNEP FI’s Global Roundtable, is to upskill banking professionals around the world and prepare them for the huge challenges they, their businesses and their customers are facing from climate change, nature loss, pollution and social issues.
Every banker needs at least a basic knowledge of these matters and to be able to apply this in the context of their daily work.
The PRB Academy will help banking professionals to understand how responsible banking practices can play a part in securing an equitable and sustainable future for the planet.
The training uses a practical and applied approach, providing all bankers with the tools needed to apply a responsible banking lens to their professional practice.
The modules will also enable bankers to unlock their curiosity towards developing future skills, as well as preparing banks to proactively engage with societal expectations, incoming national laws and regulations relating to sustainability, in addition to helping them identify the opportunities that a sustainable transition offers.
Over the next five years, the Academy aims to provide training to millions of bankers worldwide and as such will become an important benchmark to demonstrate a responsible and sustainable mindset.
Designed for the 300 plus banks who are signatories to the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Banking, which collectively represent around 45% of global banking assets, it will also be available to all banks worldwide.
By making the Academy’s education and training so widely accessible across developed, developing and emerging economies, it aims to provide an inclusive approach for the development of banking skills and knowledge regardless of location.
Developed by the world’s most established professional banking institute, the Chartered Banker Institute, the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and working with a range of banks from across the world, the PRB Academy has developed a wide-ranging curriculum that is offered via a range of accessible training modules.
Simon Thompson, chief executive of the Chartered Banker Institute, said: “Aligning banking with society’s goals as set out in the UN SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement requires building the capacity and capabilities of banks and bankers so that responsible banking isn’t just best practice; it becomes standard practice worldwide.
“This doesn’t mean we need all bankers to become experts in sustainability, but we do need all bankers to develop their knowledge of sustainability and apply it in the context of their role – in lending and investment decisions, in risk assessment, in designing new products and services, and in the advice they give to clients and customers.
“The PRB Academy aims to reach and teach all bankers worldwide, so that all banking becomes responsible banking. This is an extremely ambitious undertaking, but without vision, ambition and the leadership of UNEP FI, GIZ and the Chartered Banker Institute we will not succeed in aligning banking with society’s goals.”
Eric Usher, head of UNEP FI, added: “Banks have a unique and critical role to play in pivoting the global economic system. Using their lending and financing decisions and client relationships, banks have the power to redirect capital to accelerate the pace and scale of positive change across entire economies.
“The Principles for Responsible Banking and its Academy provide an avenue for them to do this by enabling bank employees to align their professional practice, and the strategies and operations of their organisations with the objectives of society’s goals as reflected in the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement.”
Richard Winder, UK head of sustainability at Handelsbanken, a contributor to the Executive module, added: “We’re committed to driving rapid progress to a sustainable economy, and we believe the Responsible Banking Academy offers the sector two crucial catalysts to achieving this: learning and perspective.
“Within Handelsbanken, the focus on learning and development has never been sharper, led by our ambitious sustainability goals and underpinned by a deep-rooted culture of individual and corporate responsibility.”
