When Brian Reilly emailed Barclays chief executive Jes Staley in the middle of 2019 to ask whether he thought it would be a good idea for the bank to set up a dedicated sustainable and impact banking (SIB) coverage effort, he didn’t expect the chief executive to be standing at his office door less than 30 minutes later. It’s not just a good idea, Staley told him, but critical: we need you to do this.
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And so was born what Reilly thinks is the only group of its kind among the bank’s global peers, a unit dedicated to covering both those emerging growth companies that are developing new solutions in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) spheres and also the bank’s existing large-cap clients that are looking to transition their businesses away from old, destructive technologies.
