The 2024 Banking on Climate Chaos report showed that Standard Chartered provided US$ 71.421 Billion in financing to the fossil fuel industry between 2016 and 2023. In 2023 only, Standard Chartered provided US$ 2.645 Billion for oil, gas and coal companies expanding fossil fuels. Find further details on Standard Chartered fossil fuel portfolio and how it compares to other large banks globally on Fossil Banks No Thanks and in the Banking on Climate Chaos report.

Partner organisation Reclaim Finance tracks the coal, oil and gas policies of financial institutions, including banks, in their Coal Policy Tool (CPT) and the Oil and Gas Policy Tracker (OGPT). BankTrack works closely with Reclaim Finance and endorses their policy assessments. Find further details on their assessment of Standard Chartered’s fossil fuel policy below.

BankTrack assessed Standard Chartered in its 2022 Global Human Rights Benchmark, where it achieved 7.5 points out of 14 and was ranked as a front runner. In addition, Standard Chartered scored 0.5 out of 3 on how it responds to alleged human rights violations linked to its finance, which were raised by civil society organisations. More information is detailed in the "Accountability" section of this profile.

Standard Chartered’s policies for forest-risk sectors (beef, soy, palm oil, pulp and paper, rubber and timber) have been assessed by the Forests & Finance coalition, achieving an overall score of 6.4 out of 10 and ranking it as a front runner. Standard Chartered achieved a score of 5.4 out of 10 specifically for its policies related to the beef sector and 6.6 out of 10 for its policies related to the palm oil sector. In addition, BankTrack and the Environmental Paper Network have assessed Standard Chartered’s policies related to the pulp and paper sector.

Between 2016 and 2022, Standard Chartered provided USD 1,766 million in credit to companies operating in these forest-risk sectors. For more information, see the links below.

BankTrack is keeping track of the public response of Standard Chartered to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. Standard Chartered did not publicly condemn the war. Standard Chartered is considered by Leave-Russia.org to be "pausing investments" with its operations in Russia. We consider its exposure to Russia as limited. For further details, see the table linked below.

As part of the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), Standard Chartered is required to set interim targets for 2030 for high emission priority sectors. For Standard Chartered, this includes its lending to the steel sector. You can see Standard Chartered’s iron and steel decarbonisation targets, and its progress towards meeting them in our NZBA steel targets compliance tracker:

Standard Chartered is also a member of the Sustainable Steel Principles. This means it has committed to measuring and disclosing its steel-related financed emissions on an annual basis, and reporting its alignment with the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero by 2050 pathway for the steel industry.

Partner organisation Reclaim Finance’s 2023 report on metallurgical coal financing showed that Standard Chartered provided US$ 3 billion in loans and underwriting to developers of new metallurgical coal between 2016 and 2022. Find further details on Standard Chartered’s metallurgical coal financing and and how it compares to other large banks globally in the report.

Reclaim Finance tracks the metallurgical coal policies of financial institutions, including banks, in their Coal Policy Tool. BankTrack works closely with Reclaim Finance and endorses their policy assessments. Find further details on their assessment of Standard Chartered’s metallurgical coal policy below.

According to a report by Reclaim Finance, between 2016 and June 2023, Standard Chartered provided $4.6 billion in finance to the fossil-steel industry, making it the 30th largest financier worldwide. Find further details on  Standard Charetered's steel financing and how it compares to other large banks globally in the report.