Earlier this week ANZ provided a brief update on how they’re approaching deforestation in their climate report and disappointingly there are no new developments that specifically address financed deforestation.

They have failed to satisfy any of the asks in the proposals, given they still:

Have not assessed the bank’s risk exposure to deforestation
Lack capabilities (data, tools, processes) to check that customers are not engaging in deforestation (including illegal deforestation), which other Big Four banks have made progress on; and
Lack customer expectations around deforestation for land and forest sector clients beyond public commitments to high standards via certification for soy and palm oil, which ignores the largest driver of deforestation in Australia - beef.

In ANZ's notice of meeting they've stated:

"… while ANZ does not intend to set a “no deforestation” target, we intend to continue to strengthen our due diligence processes, review our exposure to potential deforestation risk, and engage with customers to support further improvement in managing nature risks."

These intentions largely align with the intent of Item 7 (disclosure of financed deforestation) and on that basis the rationale for the board's recommendation against our resolution is unclear.

ANZ's response makes clear the bank is at a far earlier stage of understanding deforestation risk compared to peers, and that support for both resolutions is warranted.

We encourage shareholders to support these proposals to ensure nature-related risks can be managed effectively by the bank.

More information on ANZ’s approach is provided in our Investor Briefing.