OCC Takes Steps To Act On Climate Change Goals – Finance and Banking

The OCC named Darrin Benhart as the agency’s
Climate Change Risk Officer and announced the agency will join
the Network
of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial
System (“NGFS”). These steps align with Acting
Comptroller Hsu’s recent remarks that the OCC is taking a
“two-pronged approach” in fulfilling climate change
goals, with a focus on engaging other organizations and supporting
banks in the development of effective climate risk management
practices.

Mr. Benhart previously oversaw Bank of America in the OCC’s
Large Bank Supervision department, and prior to that served as
Deputy Comptroller for Supervision Risk Management and as Deputy
Comptroller for Credit and Market Risk. In his new role, Mr.
Benhart will report to the Senior Deputy Comptroller for
Supervision Risk and Analysis.

The NGFS, founded in 2017, is a membership organization made up
of 83 central banks and financial supervisors that aims to
“enhance the role of the financial system to manage risks and
to mobilize capital for green and low-carbon investments in the
broader context of environmentally sustainable development.”
The OCC stated that in its capacity as the primary prudential
regulator of close to 70 percent of the assets in the U.S.
commercial banking system, the agency intends to contribute best
practices and aid in the advancement of climate risk management in
the financial sector.

Primary Sources

1. OCC Press Release: OCC Announces Climate Change
   Risk Officer, Membership in the NGFS

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