Memo Bank joins the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF)

Memo Bank joins the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), an initiative to help reduce the climate impact of the financial industry. The Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) is a collaboration between financial institutions worldwide to enable harmonized assessments and disclosures of greenhouse gas emissions financed by loans and investments.

Since its inception in 2017, Memo Bank has been striving to minimise its environmental footprint and have a positive contribution to the transition towards a low-carbon economy. As such, Memo Bank doesn’t fund any project aimed at developing or operating infrastructures involving fossil fuels, including coal, gas and oil. Memo Bank measured its carbon footprint for the first time in 2021 and has spearheaded a number of initiatives to help its customers measure their own carbon footprint. The bank provides details of the CO₂e emissions generated by the use of its banking services on its customers’ invoices. Memo Bank also enables its customers to estimate the carbon impact of their card payments.

The Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) was pioneered in the Netherlands in 2015 and launched globally in September 2019. PCAF develops accounting methods for measuring and disclosing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with financial institutions’ loans and investments. The PCAF standard has become the global reference and has been endorsed by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. With more than 350 financial institutions from six continents, the group is rapidly expanding in North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific. Memo Bank is now the fourth French bank joining PCAF and is planning to disclose the carbon footprint of its financing portfolio by the end of H1 2023.

On March 20th, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its sixth synthesis report, in which it estimated that global warming of 1.5°C by 2030 is now unavoidable. The IPCC confirms that the financial sector’s involvement is essential to limit global warming between 1.5° and 2°C. As such, the PCAF’s initiative could be a game-changer in allowing banks around the world to assess their impact and develop eco-responsible financing and investment strategies.

“For several months now, we have been using the Exiobase database, which PCAF also uses. This database allows us to provide our customers with an estimate of the carbon emissions associated with their card payments. Therefore, we are delighted to join the PCAF and make our contribution towards the invaluable process of harmonising climate accounting practices for financial institutions. To ensure that the entire financial sector supports the transition towards a low-carbon economy, it is vital to see these types of international cooperation initiatives gain traction and galvanise financial institutions into taking concrete action.” Michel Galibert, co-founder and COO at Memo Bank.