Dutch lender ING on Tuesday said it had again toughened its lending policy to the oil and gas sector, restricting finance to clients engaged in commodity or trade finance and “midstream” infrastructure.
Commodity trade finance covers many types of loans, most of which are for less than a year, that facilitate global movement of goods from wheat to gasoline. As of yet, none of the largest TCF banks have introduced climate-related restrictions to this part of its lending book, ING said, though Rabobank has done so.
“By committing ourselves in this direction, we are sending a signal to our clients that we are actively engaged in taking actions toward decarbonizing our portfolio and progressively stepping out of that industry,” she said. ING also said it will no longer provide dedicated finance to “midstream” infrastructure activities such as processing and storage that helps new oil and gas fields to be developed.