Dutch bank ING has deployed ESG.X, a new tool to assess the sustainability disclosures of 2,000 of its largest wholesale banking clients.

Insights gained through the tool will enable the bank, it notes in its Climate Progress Update 2024 report, to have more data-driven conversations with clients about their net-zero transition and emissions reductions.

The lender will also progressively expand the kind of data it captures through the tool, and expects the tool to be available to peers and clients by 2026, signalling, it says, “its commitment to broader collaboration across the financial sector to meet climate goals and drive consequential action”.

The bank has also announced it will cease new financing for pure-play upstream oil and gas companies developing new fields, with immediate effect, and will stop financing new liquid natural gas export terminals after 2025.

In addition, the bank has expanded its Terra strategy – which aims to steer the most carbon-intensive parts of its loan book towards net zero by 2050 – to the aluminium and dairy sectors, adding to the now 12 sectors under climate assessment. While eight sectors are nearly on track to meet global climate goals, others lag behind.

Across Asia, the bank operates wholesale banking in 11 markets and holds a 13% stake in Bank of Beijing (China) and a 23% stake in TMBThanachart Bank in Thailand.

“The urgency of climate change is becoming more evident all the time,” adds Steven van Rijswijk, ING’s CEO, “and ING wants to play a leading role in accelerating the global transition.”