Listening, learning and leading on from banks’ recent climate strategy amendments
Tina Mavraki’s latest report for CCE builds on her 2024 paper on corporate culture, drawing on insights from senior industry figures and over 350 stakeholders to explore how leadership behaviours and organisational norms are influencing banks’ climate decisions.
Introduction
As banks publicly recalibrate their climate strategies—scaling back targets, removing climate-linked remuneration, and stepping back from alliances—the real story lies beneath the headlines. In her latest report for CCE, Culture meets climate, Tina Mavraki argues that organisational culture, not external pressure alone, is shaping these decisions. Drawing on over 15 senior-level interviews and engagement with 350 stakeholders, the report shows that how banks manage their organisational cultures is directly influencing their approach to climate risk, strategy, and organisational integration. Yet, despite this, most banks still underestimate or mismanage the cultural foundations that drive effective climate action.
This report builds on Mavraki’s 2024 publication, Leadership Insight: Corporate culture, which introduced the Corporate Supermap and the Five-step Sequence: effective tools for improving culture to create long-term value.
Key Points
1. Culture is shaping climate pivots—but is rarely recognised as such
Banks face complex, conflicting pressures on climate, from geopolitical risk to physical impacts like rising insurance costs. Yet organisational culture—how decisions are made, who is accountable, and what is prioritised—often determines whether a bank responds constructively or dysfunctionally.
2. Many banks are adjusting course without clear leadership
In some institutions, decision-making is reactive and fragmented. Executives defer to boards without clarity, legal risk dominates strategy, and sustainability franchises are diluted. This undermines coherent planning and hurts the bottom line.
3. Constructive cultures lean on pragmatism and consistent leadership
Where climate strategy is evolving constructively, banks are led by visible, grounded CEOs and informed by a clear commercial purpose. These institutions integrate climate into risk and business planning, focus their green growth activities, and engage clients with realism and on-the-ground expertise.
4. Culture teams are often sidelined from strategic decisions
Despite their potential, culture experts are rarely involved in strategic pivots—including climate pivoting. They tend to focus on abstract behavioural models rather than help to embed measurable change that links to commercial performance.
5. Governance blind spots persist
Current culture metrics—like engagement scores or diversity statistics—miss what matters for resilience: time-to-execution, cross-functional coordination, change-readiness, and staff empowerment. This limits banks’ ability to manage emerging risks effectively.
6. A system-level mindset is missing
Banks still struggle to operate horizontally across silos or operate in systems, as climate change requires. Without a clear framework for cultural alignment, interventions remain superficial and are quickly abandoned.
7. Culture is one of the few controllable levers
In a volatile global context, culture is a lever banks can control. Strengthening cultural performance now—particularly in the context of climate change, but also other strategic transformations like Artificial Intelligence—offers an opportunity to improve financial resilience, operational cohesion, and long-term credibility.
About the author
Tina Mavraki brings 27 years of board, finance, and natural resources experience in international banking and investment roles. She is a Chartered Portfolio Director and C-suite executive with expertise in business scale-up, governance, and energy transition. Tina has held senior roles in global capital markets (Morgan Stanley, Citi), physical supply chains (Noble Group), and investment management across financial services.
Her non-executive portfolio includes directorships at FTSE 100 candidate Metlen Energy & Metals S.A. and, previously, First Bauxite (private equity-backed), contributing to Audit, Risk, Remuneration, and Nominations Committees.
Tina’s advisory work spans leading businesses such as Starr Insurance, Piraeus Bank, and White Oak Global Advisors, as well as public and multilateral institutions including the EBRD and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.
She is known for a strong policy perspective and works with regulators, including the UK Financial Conduct Authority, on governance for energy transition, executive remuneration, and corporate culture. Her work has been published by the UK Institute of Directors, the Financial Times, and other thought leadership platforms.
Earlier, she advised European Debt Management Offices on asset-liability management and the State of Maharashtra, India, on renewable energy policy. She holds degrees from Oxford and London Business School, is a CFA holder, and a CEDR-accredited mediator.
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