Podcasts · Toronto Centre Podcasts

Ep. 164: Virtual Executive Panel - From Risk to Resilience: Advancing Supervisory Action for Sustainable Banking in Latin America

24 Jun 2025 · 1 h 00 min

This was a virtual executive panel delivered in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund.

Latin America's financial sector faces mounting challenges from climate change, biodiversity loss, and shifting global expectations around environmental and social (E&S) accountability. Drawing on the findings of WWF’s 2025 Sustainable Banking Assessment — which evaluated 22 leading banks across six Latin American countries — this panel explored supervisory and policy implications for embedding E&S considerations into risk-based frameworks.

The session brought together WWF experts, banking supervisors, and financial institutions to discuss how supervisory authorities could accelerate progress to close persistent implementation gaps in E&S risk management, especially regarding nature-related risks, science-based targets, and net-zero alignment. A key focus was on how regulators could support more consistent disclosure practices, enhance portfolio-level risk assessments, and align national frameworks with global standards such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, the International Sustainability Standards Board, and the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.

The panel offered a timely opportunity to reflect on the evolving role of supervisors in guiding the transition toward a nature-positive and climate-resilient financial system — especially in a region with rich natural capital and heightened exposure to systemic environmental risks.

Opening Remarks:

Roberto Troya, Senior Vice President, WWF-US Country Offices; Regional Director, WWF-Latin America

Babak Abbaszadeh, President and CEO, Toronto Centre

Panelists:

Solange Berstein, Chairwoman, Financial Market Commission of Chile

Aaron Vermeulen, Finance Practice Lead, WWF-International

Hernando José Gómez, Former Director, National Planning Department of Colombia

Moderator:

Socorro Heysen, Board Member, Toronto Centre

Read the transcript here. Read their biographies here.

Watch the executive panel here.

Links in the notes 4

• https://wwf.panda.org/
• https://torcentre.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/Files/ERSaIx8LFwZFniKYuncFruwBu_y_drTYBfk1AWMbPxUqcg?e=Y5P0xR
• https://torcentre.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/Files/EQzXiPw4PihFpo4LPRCTtiIB6YzFG84sbvbKAzsWp5NBRA?e=i71mtS
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi5KLiGqXIQ

The episode on the publisher’s site ↗ (opens in a new tab)