In an interview with the Budapest Business Journal, András Puskás, deputy CEO of MBH Bank, discusses financed emissions, climate risks, transition plans, and how the bank’s own net-zero program is reshaping strategy, lending and client relationships.

BBJ: How do you define a bank’s real responsibility in the transition to a net-zero economy?

András Puskás: It goes well beyond reducing the emissions of its own buildings, vehicle fleet or operations. The much larger impact lies in the activities it finances. Through lending and investment decisions, banks help determine which technologies, buildings, infrastructure and business models receive capital and can develop over the coming decades.

This does not mean that banks should decide which sectors should or should not receive financing, nor that they should withdraw from carbon-intensive industries. In fact, such an approach could make the transition more difficult. Many of the sectors with the highest emissions today are precisely those that require significant investment to transform.

I see the role of a bank as supporting and financing a credible transition of the real economy, while also understanding and managing the risks that climate change and decarbonization create for its own portfolio. In practical terms, this means looking not only at where a company is today, but increasingly at where it is heading. That is an important shift. Net-zero banking is less about labeling companies as “green” or “brown” and more about directing capital toward businesses and projects that can remain competitive in a changing economy.

BBJ: How can a bank assess the emissions, climate risks and transition plans of the companies and projects it finances, particularly when reliable data are still limited?

AP: One of the first lessons is that we should not wait for perfect data, because perfect data is rarely available. Climate-related information is still far less mature than traditional financial reporting, especially among smaller companies. A bank must, therefore, work with a hierarchy of information.

Where verified company-specific emissions data is available, this provides the strongest basis. Where it is not, banks can use energy consumption, production data, technology information, or sector- and country-level estimates. International methodologies such as PCAF explicitly recognize this reality: even estimated data can help banks identify the carbon-intensive “hotspots” in their portfolios, while data quality is gradually improved over time.

At the same time, emissions are only one part of the picture. We also need to understand physical climate risks and transition risks, such as changes in regulation, energy prices, technologies, or customer preferences. The objective is not to produce one perfect carbon number for every client. It is to build an increasingly sophisticated picture of where the material risks and opportunities are and use that information in decision-making.

BBJ: What makes a corporate transition plan credible from a bank’s perspective? What factors influence whether a company remains financeable over the long term?

AP: It should, first and foremost, be embedded in the company’s business plan rather than remain a standalone sustainability exercise. A long-term ambition such as becoming net-zero by 2050 is useful, but on its own tells us relatively little. What matters is what happens between today and 2050. Are there measurable interim objectives? Has management identified the main sources of emissions? Are concrete investments planned? Is capital expenditure consistent with the stated ambition?

Credibility also differs by sector. The transition pathway of a steel producer will naturally look very different to that of a real estate company or an agricultural business. Banks therefore increasingly need sector-specific knowledge rather than one universal ESG score. International transition-planning frameworks similarly focus on strategy, implementation, metrics, governance and accountability rather than on a single headline target.

Over time, I expect the range of factors that determine a company’s ability to access financing will broaden. Traditional factors such as profitability, leverage, cash flow and collateral will remain fundamental. But questions such as energy efficiency, exposure to carbon costs, technology choices, physical climate vulnerability and the ability to adapt will increasingly influence how resilient a company appears over a five-, 10- or 20-year horizon.

BBJ: How is the net-zero agenda changing traditional banking activities such as risk management, lending decisions, product development and customer relationships? What new capabilities and data will banks need as sustainability becomes more deeply embedded?

AP: Perhaps the biggest change is that sustainability is moving from a specialist function into the core of banking. In risk management, climate and environmental factors increasingly need to be translated into traditional risk language: How could they affect revenues, operating costs, asset values, probability of default, or collateral values? In lending, this means progressively enriching traditional credit information with new types of data. In real estate, for example, energy performance becomes relevant; in agriculture, water stress and drought exposure may matter; in industry, the technology used and the carbon intensity of production may become important.

Product development also changes. The transition creates financing needs: energy efficiency, renewable energy, building renovation, cleaner technologies and new production processes all require capital. Sustainability can, therefore, be a source of business development, not only risk management.

Perhaps most importantly, the relationship with the client changes. The bank increasingly becomes a partner in understanding the transition: Where is the company today? Where does it need to get to? What investments will be required, and how can they be financed? To do this well, banks need much stronger climate data, sector expertise, analytical capabilities and modeling tools, but also employees who can translate climate science and regulation into everyday banking decisions.

BBJ: MBH Bank launched its own net-zero program last year. What have been the most important lessons so far, and how do you expect the program to influence the bank’s strategy and its cooperation with clients over the coming years?

AP: Perhaps our most important lesson has been that net-zero cannot be treated as a standalone ESG project. Once you start looking seriously at the issue, it quickly touches strategy, risk management, lending, data, products, governance and client relationships.

A second lesson is that the transition is necessarily gradual. The first task is to understand the portfolio: where emissions are concentrated, which sectors face the greatest transition challenges, where climate risks are most material and where the greatest financing opportunities may emerge. Data quality and methodologies will continue to evolve, so the system must be capable of learning and improving rather than waiting for a theoretically perfect starting point.

We see net-zero as a long-term strategic journey rather than a single target. Over the coming years, I expect it to become increasingly embedded in how we assess risks, develop products, understand sectors and engage with clients. This is particularly important because, for a bank with a broad presence in the Hungarian economy, progress on the transition is closely linked to the clients’ progress. Our objective is not simply to measure the transition from a distance, but increasingly to understand how we can support it through financing and cooperation.

Ultimately, the most interesting aspect of net-zero may be that it forces us to think differently about the role of banking itself. The question is no longer only whether a company is financeable today, but increasingly what will make it successful and able to access financing in the economy 10 or 20 years from now.

This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of September 18, 2026.

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