JPMorgan Quits Net-Zero Banking Alliance; 3 US Banks Remain Members

J.P. Morgan Chase reportedly became the sixth bank to quit the climate-focused Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) since the beginning of December.

The banking giant followed Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs Group and Wells Fargo, which all left the NZBA in December, and Morgan Stanley, which said in January that it was quitting the group as well, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (Jan. 7).

J.P. Morgan said in the report that it will “continue to work independently to advance the interests” of the bank, its shareholders and its clients, and will remain focused on “pragmatic solutions to help further low-carbon technologies while advancing energy security.”

Reached by PYMNTS, an NZBA spokesperson declined to comment on the report.

The NZBA is led by a group of global banks and convened by the United Nations, according to its website. The member banks are “committed to aligning their lending, investment and capital markets activities with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” the site said.

The group was launched in April 2021 and now has a membership that includes 141 banks from 44 countries, according to its members page.

Following the departure of J.P. Morgan Chase, the NZBA has three U.S. members: Amalgamated Bank, Areti Bank and Climate First Bank, according to the members page.

“We believe banks can play a crucial role towards sustainable development,” Areti Bank CEO Dimas Palmar said in a quote posted on the bank’s members page on the NZBA website.

Citing unnamed sources, the Bloomberg report attributed the group’s loss of other U.S. member banks to efforts to avoid political pressure amid Republican attacks on “woke” finance and ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office.

The banks that have left the NZBA have said they will continue to support clients involved in the energy transition, according to the report.

At the same time, banks have increased their financing of fossil fuel-focused companies since the founding of the group in 2021, per the report.

European banks began routinely monitoring and reporting on their net-zero emissions progress as the number of environmentally conscious consumers increased across the continent, PYMNTS reported in January 2023.

At that time, financial institutions representing 40% of global banking assets had committed to aligning their lending and investment portfolios with net-zero emissions by 2050.