Corruption. Rogue trading. Libor. Foreign corrupt practices. Billion dollar penalties and fines. Just another day on Wall Street. Compare and contrast, if you will, HSBC and UBS. Pictures comprising select images reporting Steel City Re Reputational Value Metrics speak louder than mere words. RVM is a non-financial measure of reputational value; CRR is a measure of relative reputational ranking. Peer group comprises 251 financial/banking institutions. (For more background, read: Reputation, Stock Price and You: Why the market rewards some companies and punishes others (2012, Apress).

The New York Times reports today  that major lenders are backing off from companies that present the potential for material environmental risks. It's a reputational thing.

According to the report by Tom Zeller, "After years of legal entanglements arising from environmental messes and increased scrutiny of banks that finance the dirtiest industries, several large commercial lenders are taking a stand on industry practices that they regard as risky to their reputations and bottom lines." Major financial institutions now factoring sustainability issues into their lending decisions include Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Citibank (NYSE:C), HSBC (NYSE:HBC), and Rabobank (AMS:ROBA).

In the parlance of the Society, it appears that sustainability policies and practices are emerging as material credit risk factors. And for those of you who were wondering what all the fuss is about at the Society, this is an example of what we mean by "intangible asset finance."