The world’s biggest lenders generated a total of about $3 billion in fees last year from lining up debt for deals marketed as environmentally friendly, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
By comparison, the sector brought in less than $2.7 billion in aggregate earnings from fossil-fuel deals, the data show. European banks led the transition, with BNP Paribas SA topping Bloomberg’s green debt league table.
Meanwhile, Wall Street dominated fossil finance, with Wells Fargo & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. generating the biggest earnings from oil and gas deals. BNP, the European Union’s largest bank, got close to $130 million last year from its green finance business.
Credit Agricole AG was next with $96 mil- lion and then HSBC Holdings Plc with $94 million.
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On the other side of the energy divide, Wells Fargo earned fees of $107 million from arranging bonds and loans for the fossil fuel sector, followed closely by JPMorgan and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., both with $106 million.
The development coincides with stricter regulations in Europe, where both the European Central Bank and the region’s top banking authority have made clear they want the finance industry to speed up its green transition.
Lenders in Europe now face the threat of fines and higher capital requirements if they mismanage climate exposures. In response, many banks are imposing explicit restrictions on fossil finance.
In the US, meanwhile, the regulatory outlook remains uncertain and fragmented as many Republican states place hurdles in the way of the green transition.
Banks suspected of with- holding financing from the oil and gas sector increasingly face retaliation, with Texas among states threatening to cut off Wall Street firms that embrace net zero emissions goals.
