The Bank of England is restarting the Climate Biennial Exploratory Scenario (CBES)

In line with comments made by Governor Andrew Bailey on 9 November 2020. The CBES will be launched in June 2021.
Published on 13 November 2020

Information on participation in the CBES, timelines for the exercise, and how the Bank intends to engage with participants ahead of launch is set out below. These decisions reflect feedback that the Bank received following publication of its December 2019 discussion paper 'The 2021 biennial exploratory scenario on the financial risks from climate change'.

Institutions invited to take part

Large UK banks and building societies

  • Barclays
  • HSBC
  • Lloyds Banking Group
  • Royal Bank of Scotland
  • Santander UK
  • Standard Chartered
  • Nationwide Building Society

Large UK life insurers

  • Aviva (Group)
  • M&G (Group)
  • Legal & General (Group)
  • Phoenix (Group)
  • Scottish Widows (Group)

Large UK general insurers

  • Aviva (Group)
  • RSA (Group)
  • Direct Line (Group)
  • AXA (UK entity only)
  • Allianz (UK entity only)
  • AIG (UK entity only)

Society of Lloyd’s (10 selected Managing Agents)

Timeline

  • End-December 2020: Balance sheet cut-off date for the exercise
  • June 2021: Official launch - scenarios published
  • End September 2021: Participants’ initial submissions due
  • December 2021: Bank to announce decision on whether to run a second round of the exercise
  • Q1 2022: Results of the CBES published (in the event of a second round, the Bank will publish results at the end of Q1 2022)

Planned engagement with participants ahead of June 2021 launch

This program of planned engagement represents an attempt to reduce the burden on participating firms by improving their readiness for the exercise.

  • December 2020: The Bank will inform participants about its high level approach for the CBES in a number of key areas including counter party exposure data. It will also release a provisional set of scenario variables to be included in the exercise.  
  • February 2021: The Bank will release a set of draft data templates, as well as a draft qualitative questionnaire for feedback from participants.
  • April 2021: The Bank will release a finalised set of data templates and qualitative questionnaire.