Barclays creates new Sustainable and Impact Banking Group

Newly created group centralizes Barclays’ work with new, high-growth clients solving global environmental and social challenges, and with clients seeking sustainable financing

New York, October 29, 2019 – Barclays today announces the launch of a new Sustainable and Impact Banking group, led by Brian Reilly, Global Head of Sustainable and Impact Banking. The newly created group will focus on identifying new, high-growth clients that are solving global environmental and social challenges, and advising existing Banking clients on sustainable growth strategy and finance.

“We believe that sustainability and social impact will be a significant area of growth in the years to come, and it is important for Barclays to identify and actively pursue areas of growth in the market in order to best serve our clients,” says Joe McGrath, Global Head of Banking. “Through the creation of a new coverage group dedicated to this rapidly growing universe of companies, Brian and his team will be able to leverage our existing expertise to provide the advice and financing that these companies need to accelerate their growth and scale up their impact.”

By working in partnership with existing coverage teams at Barclays to both support and lead client relationships, the Sustainable and Impact Banking group will identify and cover new companies, most of them emerging growth companies, focused on sustainability or social impact, and will advise such companies on financing and strategic opportunities. The group will also work with environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) investors, building unique insights into this rapidly growing investor base in order to advise both existing and new clients of Barclays on ESG metrics and positioning.

“Companies with a stated mission of addressing the world’s most pressing societal and environmental challenges are continually emerging in every sector,” adds Brian Reilly. “In parallel, established global companies are both integrating sustainability into their corporate strategies and looking to partner with innovative, start-up firms. Corporations across the world are embracing the idea that positive social impact goes hand-in-hand with shareholder returns.”

The new group will build on Barclays’ existing credentials in sustainable banking, having advised on equity offerings and private placements for corporations operating across the ESG space; sustainability-linked credit facilities – including the first ever in the US; and more than $57 billion of green, sustainable or social bonds for clients since January 2018, including the first ever from a UK bank.

The Sustainable and Impact Banking group will incorporate the Social Impact Banking initiative, launched in early 2018 under the leadership of Jed Lynch in the Americas and May Jaramillo in EME. The team will also partner closely with Debt Capital Markets, specifically Susan Barron, Global Head of Green and Sustainable DCM, and with the Private Capital Markets team, headed globally by Angus Whelchel.

Reflecting the importance of sustainability at Barclays across the entire firm, the Sustainable and Impact Banking team will work with the Sustainability & ESG team to coordinate and contribute to Barclays’ sustainability and climate change strategy, and will leverage the team’s intelligence in global ESG matters.

“As one of the largest investment banks in the world, we have a significant opportunity to align our corporate commitment to ESG with the work of our client-facing teams,” adds Elsa Palanza, Global Head of Sustainability & Citizenship. “I look forward to partnering with Brian and his team – and with other colleagues across Barclays – to help accelerate our work with the companies and entrepreneurs who are building the solutions to the world’s environmental and social challenges.”

Barclays has long been a pioneer in sustainable banking. In June this year, Barclays hosted its second annual Green Frontiers event, bringing together investors and financiers to discuss the growing challenge of climate change. In 2016, Barclays and Unreasonable Group, co-founded Unreasonable Impact, an accelerator program, led by Deborah Goldfarb, Global Head of Citizenship at Barclays Bank PLC, aimed at supporting growth-stage entrepreneurs whose ventures have the potential to employ thousands of people worldwide while solving some of the most world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges. Barclays’ Social Innovation Facility incubates financial products and services that will have a sustained social or environmental impact, including a number of Impact Series reports from Barclays Research .

Brian Reilly was previously Chairman of Global Equity Capital Markets in Banking. He has more than two decades of experience in the capital markets and in mergers and acquisitions.

¹Reports include: ESG investing yields positive returns in select bond markets, published October 2018, and An uneasy alliance: can the world be less reliant on oil?, published May 2019.