This weekend the UN launched new Principles for Responsible Banking. These were developed in a joint effort between the UN's Environment Programme for Financial Institutions (UNEP FI), and a range of contributing banks and stakeholders. At launch, the Principles had 130 signatories from 49 countries, representing US$47 trillion - or around a third of the assets of the global banking industry.

But what does being a ?responsible? bank actually entail? Do they need these ?Principles??

Let's start with the easier of those two questions. The Principles for Responsible Banking are designed to be used by any bank globally - so with a very wide range of business models and operating contexts. We?ve heard an increasing amount in recent years about ?green? or 'sustainable? finance, but the Principles aim to go wider still. The very first Principle sets out the expectation that banks will ?align our business strategy to be consistent with and contribute to individuals? needs and society's goals?.

Perhaps that's as good a place as any to pause and look at the second question. It's been more than a decade since the financial crisis, and many repercussions are still being felt in both the economy and in societal dialogue. Individually, banks may not need a set of Principles - they may have already made good progress at understanding where their most significant impacts arise, trying to solve those issues with their clients and stakeholders, and then reporting on their progress. They may have already identified how they can and do contribute to society's goals.

If they have already made good progress, this will have created a lot of knowledge that could be shared. Standard Chartered has been a UNEP FI member since 2002 and has benefitted greatly from member projects - including those on assessing physical and transition climate risks which informed our emissions white paper, and on how to classify the impact we have through our client business. We?ve also done some of our own work - setting goals in our Sustainability Aspirations and measuring our socio-economic impacts through a series of reports since 2010.

As we see it, the aim of the Principles is to create a community who can share their knowledge and experience and help each other progress and, hopefully in doing so, also support those banks who might be at an earlier stage.

Will this make banks more ?principled?? That remains to be seen. The Principles require banks to disclose their progress, but success is really about culture. If banks are really committed, it will require effort from colleagues across their organisations, and from their leadership at the top. But, for those who have that commitment, collaboration seems the best way to progress.

Simon will be speaking at the upcoming UK Finance Climate Risk, Green Finance, and Sustainability Conference on  5 November, click here to view the agenda.