Euro zone banks finally making progress on climate issues: ECB

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Banks across the euro zone are making "tangible" progress in managing climate risk but could still take years to meet the European Central Bank's expectations, ECB board member Frank Elderson said on Wednesday.

"I see it as reasonable that banks can be fully compliant with all our expectations by the end of 2024 at the latest," Elderson said in a speech. "We remain open to listen to arguments of banks that may render this not feasible in individual cases."

The ECB had long argued that big banks are dragging their feet in meeting its climate change risk disclosure expectations and repeatedly called on them to make progress to avoid more forceful supervisory action.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Francesco Canepa)