"Call to vote against the election / re-election of climate-conflicted directors at Standard Bank"

The organisations which have signed this letter are non-profits working across the globe to achieve climate justice and to make finance flows consistent with low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development in accordance with the goals of the Paris Agreement. We are writing to Standard Bank shareholders to bring to their attention the significant risk of conflicts of interest for a number of Standard Bank’s non-executive directors, and to call on them to vote against the election or re-election of climate-conflicted directors at the bank’s upcoming annual general meeting (AGM) on 26 June 2020.

... If all of the directors standing for election or re-election at Standard Bank’s AGM are elected, five of twelve independent non-executive directors (42% of all independent directors) and two of three non-executive directors - collectively, 41%2 of the Standard Bank board - will be conflicted with regard to climate change-related matters by virtue of their ties to fossil fuel companies...Standard Bank is a founding signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Banking4, which “set the global benchmark for what it means to be a responsible bank”. In terms of Principle 1, “Alignment”, signatory banks commit themselves to “align [their] business strategy to be consistent with and contribute to individuals’ needs and society’s goals, as expressed in the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement and relevant national and regional frameworks”...

In these circumstances, responsible investors are faced with no good options where the critical issue of climate change is concerned: either these board members will recuse themselves, given their conflicts, creating a corporate governance void when the board considers crucial climate-related matters; or they will not recuse themselves, compromising the ability of the board to provide climate-competent leadership (and potentially rendering board resolutions invalid under the Companies Act).