Barclays

Barclays expands partnership with Groundsure




Barclays has expanded its agreement with environmental analytics business Groundsure to start screening commercial transactions in the UK for environmental and climate change risks.

As part of the extended partnership, Barclays will be able to use Groundsure’s Siteguard Climate report service, which includes a four-tier risk assessment summary, explicating opinions on environmental liability, loan security risks and potential property value impacts.

It also provides an assessment on the current physical climate risk from flooding and projected forward over the medium term.  

Groundsure has been working with Barclays since 2006, providing the bank with a definitive opinion on lending security in relation to flooding and contaminated land.

Dan Montagnani, CEO at Groundsure, said: “Forward-thinking major banks are looking at how they are going to respond to the Bank of England expectations on embedding approaches to climate related financial risk.  

“We will be helping Barclays meet its compliance obligations for both environmental and broader climate impacts, ensuring it is well-positioned to manage this at scale for its commercial portfolio.”

David Kempster, marketing director at Groundsure, stated that it was great seeing the company strengthen and develop its relationship with Barclays, after so many years of working together.

“Environmental data has always been considered to be fairly static, but now the game is changing — we’re looking ahead and we’re considering the potential factors that could impact on the site as well,” he added.

Ania Musial, VP of environment and climate risk management at Barclays (pictured above), commented: “Ensuring we can walk into high value commercial lending with eyes fully open about legacy environment and forward physical climate risks is a vital part of our governance and credit risk approach.

“Our long and successful relationship with Groundsure has ensured that many thousands of transactions have been effectively screened with its analytics and data intelligence. 

“Now, we can take a longer view ahead to account for the potential impact that the climate will play on these lending decisions with greater confidence.”

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