US regulator OCC withdraws guidance to banks for climate-related financial risk

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency withdrew principles providing guidance to banks for climate-related financial risk, the financial regulator said on Monday.

Since taking office on January 20, President Donald Trump has announced withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, canceled U.S. global climate finance and severed international partnerships on climate, including stopping the participation of U.S. scientists in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

"The principles providing guidance to banks for climate-related financial risk are overly burdensome and duplicative," Acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney Hood said in a statement.

"I will continue to look for appropriate opportunities to calibrate regulatory requirements to be effective, not excessive, while ensuring the safety, soundness and fairness of the federal banking system."

Identifying climate risks was one of Democratic former President Joe Biden's key administration priorities.

Trump, a Republican, has vowed to eliminate many of those, arguing they have created unwanted burden for corporations.

Advocates have raised alarm over Trump's actions.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler and Nick Zieminski)