NatWest and HSBC further restrict finance for metallurgical coal
The success
In 2026, two UK banks, NatWest and HSBC, adopted and strengthened metallurgical coal policies respectively. NatWest introduced a project finance exclusion for new metallurgical coal mines and removed language describing metallurgical coal as "essential" for the steel industry; HSBC strengthened its 2022 metallurgical coal policy by adding an explicit exclusion for new metallurgical coal infrastructure and introducing an enhanced due diligence requirement for any new relationship with a prospective client holding metallurgical coal assets. Metallurgical coal, or coal for steelmaking, accounts for 14% of total global coal production. Despite this, it has been left out of most bank’s coal policies.
BankTrack's role
BankTrack has been advocating for an end to bank finance metallurgical coal mining since the launch of our Banks and Steel project in February 2023. In December 2023, together with Reclaim Finance and 67 organisations, we sent letters to the 50 largest banks financing metallurgical coal expansion, including HSBC and NatWest, calling on them to adopt a metallurgical coal exclusion policy. Since then, we’ve consistently called on those banks to use Urgewald’s Metallurgical Coal Exit List (MCEL) as the basis for exclusion.