SBI becomes signatory investor to CDP

Mumbai, Feb 21 (PTI) Country''s largest lender, StateBank of India, today said it has become a signatory investorto the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a global initiativefor sustainable development.

CDP collects data on carbon emissions from 5,000 largecompanies every year, including the top 200 Indian companieslisted on the National Stock Exchange.

Signatory financial institutions stand to get affectedby environmental costs which come back into their respectiveportfolios as insurance premiums, taxes, inflated input pricesand the physical cost associated with disasters, a releaseissued by SBI said.

"CDP provides investors, insurance companies and bankswith a lens through which to evaluate these externalities andhow they will impact their specific portfolio," it added.

Other lenders like HDFC Bank Ltd., IDBI, IDFC,Reliance Capital, Tata Capital, IndusInd Bank and Yes Bank arealso signatories to the CDP while internationally, the namesinclude 550 investors including the likes of Black Rock, HSBC,Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley who collectively have USD71-trillion of assets under management, it said.