Fitch Ratings publishes exposure draft proposing to introduce Climate Vulnerability Signals

Written by Adam Cadle

03/09/2025

Fitch Ratings has published an exposure draft proposing to introduce Climate Vulnerability Signals (Climate.VS) as a screening tool to enhance its ability to identify financial institutions with higher potential exposure to climate-related risks.

These entities would be subject to additional analysis and consideration in Fitch’s credit rating reviews.

Fitch does not expect the introduction of Climate.VS to have an immediate impact on any financial institution ratings because all relevant climate-risk considerations are already incorporated in our financial institution ratings and criteria. Climate.VS will be used as a screener rather than a direct input into the ratings.

The scope of the proposed criteria would be cross-sector in nature, with applicability to banks, insurance companies and non-bank financial institutions.

Fitch said it invites feedback on the proposed criteria. Comments should be sent to criteria.feedback@fitchratings.com by 3 October 2025.

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