Banks lent $2.6tn linked to ecosystem and wildlife destruction in 2019 – report

Lack of policies regulating impact on natural world means finance industry effectively bankrolling biodiversity loss, analysis finds

• The world's banks must start to value nature and stop paying for its destruction

The world's largest investment banks provided more than $2.6tn (1.9tn) of financing linked to the destruction of ecosystems and wildlife last year, according to a new report.

Led by Wall Street giants Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase, 50 top investment banks provided financial services to sectors driving mass extinctions and biodiversity loss worth more than the GDP of Canada in 2019, the analysis found.