Interview with Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, conducted by Laura Noonan and Nick Comfort on 17 February 2026

19 February 2026

From the outside, the process around periodic penalty payments for managing climate risk seemed very long. How come?

Since managing climate and nature-related risks was new, we adopted a multi-year approach and stepped up our engagement proportionally, starting with supervisory expectations in 2020, self-assessments and action plans by the banks in 2021 and a review in 2022 to gauge progress. The banks were moving, but we wanted them to move faster. This is why in 2022 we set a deadline for end-2024, with corresponding interim milestones. The first interim milestone of March 2023 – the materiality assessment – was foundational. We have to be, and have been, proportionate. In those cases when we found that the materiality assessment was not up to standard, we gave the banks formal…