Essay by Eric Worrall
A few days ago, WUWT welcomed HSBC’s Stuart Kirk for revealing how top bankers like himself are being pressured to add unrealistic assumptions to climate models, such as a $200 carbon tax, to produce results that match the desired political narrative. Stuart has been suspended from the investigation.
HSBC suspends head of responsible investment who called climate warnings ‘disturbing’
Investigative bank Stuart Kirk conference speech derivatives flood risk and climate warning from UN and Bank of England
Kalyeena Makortoff
Bank reporter @kalyeena
Monday, May 23, 2022 08.10 AESTHSBC suspended a senior banker after he mentioned the climate crisis warning is “groundless” and “distinguishable” in a conference speech that was later denounced by the lender’s chief executive.
Stuart Kirk, HSBC’s head of responsible investment since last July, will remain suspended until the bank completes its internal investigation into the matter.
HSBC came under pressure to fire Kirk after he gave a presentation in London titled “Why Investors Shouldn’t Worry About Climate Risks” in which he outlined major flood risks, and complained complain about having to spend time “considering something is going to happen in 20 or 30 years”.
HSBC declined to comment on Kirk’s suspension, which was first reported by the Financial Times. Kirk did not respond to requests for comment sent via LinkedIn or Twitter.
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The following is a presentation by Stuart Kirk.
In my opinion, this workplace suspension has the potential to greatly affect HSBC’s reputation.
When people entrust their money to a bank, what they get most of all is honesty. We’ve all seen caricatures of greedy bankers, and I don’t deny that there are cases where bank employees have abused customer trust, but the reality is that the relationship Trust with customers is fundamental to conducting business. You don’t give your money to someone unless you trust them and believe they are honest.
But this suspension has demonstrated that in some cases honesty at HSBC can be a punishable breach.
It doesn’t matter if you believe Stuart Kirk is right or not. Stuart spoke his mind, he gave his honest opinion – and has now been suspended, presumably because HSBC’s top management deemed his honesty to be inconvenient or embarrassing.
How can investors trust HSBC bankers to tell the truth, if telling the truth could lead to suspension? How can anyone trust an HSBC advisor to tell the truth about anything climate-related, like the net worth and risk profile of climate-related investments, if everyone is know their HSBC financial advisor is interested in them?
Think carefully about your actions HSBC. Lots of eyes are watching your next move.
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