SUSTAINABLE FINANCE

WHAT ROLE DOES FIFTH THIRD BANK PLAY IN EXPANDING ENERGY AFFORDABILITY, ACCESS AND RESILIENCE? DO YOU HAVE ANY EXAMPLES? Sustainability merges well with business when we really understand the drivers for the needs and what may be the opportunity – specifically when it comes to providing financial capital. Affordability in the energy space, affordability in general is becoming a big issue, whether it is housing, whether it is the energy itself, even water.

So resource affordability is becoming a big issue. And the way we think about solving it is by building tools and products and business awareness around what is not only risk reward, but also what is the payback or the ROI for making certain investments.

Whether you are a residential customer or a small business or a large business, we believe that, because the cost of energy or energy inflation has been increasing exponentially, finding solutions which are more local, which are more mid to long term, and which do not come with a lot of operational costs, are really good solutions.

The other piece where we believe there is going to be a significant need is availability of energy itself.

We all know that the growth of the US economy, driven by recent advances in AI, is going to come with a lot of energy demand, and if you look at the energy grid of the US, it is severely under capacity.

So how do we support our clients in what is called distributed energy generation and storage, so that it not only provides affordable energy

122 November 2025