HSBC global head of responsible investment Stuart Kirk, has resigned after receiving criticism from the bank for a speech he gave arguing that climate change regulation of financial services providers is excessive and disproportionate.
Speaking at an FT conference in May, Kirk said global warming was already priced into asset valuations, and argued the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) own projections showed a temperature rise of 3.6 degrees by 2100 would mean a loss of 2.6 per cent of global GDP. This was trivial he argued, as global growth would probably be between 500 and 1,000 per cent by then. HSBC suspended him following the controversial presentation.
Kirk has been on paid leave since May and announced his resignation on Linkedin yesterday, citing the bank’s “behaviour” towards him following his speech as the cause and stating that “there is no place for virtue signalling in finance.”
He said: “Over a 27-year unblemished record in finance, journalism and consulting I have only ever tried to do the best for my clients and readers, knowing that doing so helps my employer too.
“Investing is hard. So is saving our planet. Opinions on both differ. But humanity’s best chance of success is open and honest debate. If companies believe in diversity and speaking up, they need to walk the talk. A cancel culture destroys wealth and progress.
“I will continue to prod with a sharp stick the nonsense, hypocrisy, sloppy logic and group-think inside the mainstream bubble of sustainable finance.”
At the FT Live Moral Money Summit Europe conference in May he argued that investors do not need to be concerned about climate change and that “there’s always some nut job telling me about the end of the world”.
At the FT conference he said: “I work at a bank that’s being attacked by crypto, we’ve got regulatory in the US trying to stop us, we’ve got the China problem, we’ve got a housing crisis looming, we’ve got interest rates going up, we’ve got inflation coming down the pipes and I’m being told to spend time and time age looking at something that’s going to happen in 20 or 30 years, hence the proportionality is completely out of whack.”
In his LinkedIn post he also announced a new project that will “underline the central argument in my speech”.
He said: “I’ve been gathering a crack group of like-minded individuals together to deliver what is arguably the greatest sustainable investment idea ever conceived. A whole new asset class.”
Kirk has been at the bank since January 2020 having joined as global head of research and Insight from DWS Group and becoming global head of responsible investments in July 2021.
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