Greenpeace lodges complaint about Swiss financial authorities

Greenpeace on Wednesday filed a complaint against the Swiss financial supervisory bodies, accusing them of letting banks and insurance companies fuel the climate crisis.

Lodging the complaint at the Swiss parliament in Bern, the environmental campaign group installed three wise monkeys outside — their eyes, ears and mouths covered in banknotes.

They were meant to represent the Swiss National Bank, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority and the Occupational Pension Supervisory Commission.

“Regulatory bodies must take climate issues into account,” Greenpeace said in a statement.

“The Swiss financial centre is fuelling the climate crisis,” it said.

“The greenhouse gas emissions induced by Swiss financial flows are massive and the current behaviour of Swiss financial institutions in terms of investment promotes devastating global warming.”

The complaint demanded that the Swiss financial supervisory authorities integrate climate risks into their mandate and ensure that all the bodies they have oversight of take climate risks into account.

cf/rjm/jh