Europe’s banks are considering cutting their business travel
by up to half, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Dutch bank ABN Amro said in the article that it plans to halve its air travel compared with 2017 over the next five years, in part by banning bankers from taking flights between its European offices and forcing them to take the train.
Lloyds Banking Group has pledged to sustain the momentum
built during the pandemic by keeping carbon-dioxide emissions from travel to
less than 50 per cent of 2019 levels, it told the FT.
Standard Chartered said it “expected bankers’ movements to
be about a third lower than before the pandemic”.
Andy Halford, the bank’s chief financial officer, said, “Meetings with investors to do updates, roadshows around
the world, I expect those things will reduce. Many investors can get just as
much out of it on video. But town halls with a lot of staff, important
executive meetings . . . that will need to continue. The morale impact is worth
the effort.”
Noel Quinn, chief executive of HSBC, told the newspaper that
he expected to reduce his own travel by about half post-Covid, taking fewer,
longer trips to the lender’s global hubs to lower the number of flights
required.