Meeting the Bank of England climate standards with OS location data

In early December, the Bank of England set clear expectations for how climate-related risks must be identified, measured, and managed across insurance and retail banking portfolios.

With June 2026 emerging as a key compliance milestone, financial institutions will be expected to demonstrate that they understand their exposure to climate perils with confidence.

Flooding is the most significant threat under current climate change scenarios, but it has historically been difficult to map the risk across portfolios. The question is no longer whether banks and insurers need to act on climate risk, but whether they have the data to do it effectively.

Building a standardised view

The main challenge facing financial institutions is integrating climate data into a standardised view that aligns with Bank of England expectations. To meet these standards, financial institutions must know exactly where homes sit, what materials they're made of, and how they're exposed to specific climate perils. This level of precision needs accurate location data as the foundation.

Ordnance Survey (OS) data provides this foundation. It enables financial institutions to make decisions at a property level using comprehensive location data, including building locations and structural characteristics such as heights and footprints, number of floors, basement presence, and construction materials. This detail is essential for understanding vulnerability to climate risks like flooding.

Mapping climate risk with precision

Data from the OS Land Use theme can provide information about physical land cover such as vegetation, bare ground, parks and gardens, while the NGD Water theme includes information about rivers, streams, lakes, canals and coastal water – crucial for flood risk assessment.

Using a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) as a key identifier, lenders can connect properties to key datasets, making it easy to link data to a specific household to assist in the underwriting process. By mapping the exact location and the surrounding environment, flood, hydrological, and hydraulic modelling specialists (OS Partners) can combine physical with historical records to determine potential exposure and frequency. This data then feeds into banks and insurers to underwrite products and make informed decisions.

By mapping the exact location and extent of waterways near properties, banks and insurers can determine potential exposure for specific houses, with confidence. This data then feeds into flood risk models that look at historical flood records, to predict flood zones and assess risk levels across different areas.

With this level of detail, financial institutions can identify sections of their portfolios that have a higher concentration of risk, such as the clustering of houses around flood-prone areas. Using OS location data to identify these concentrations allows institutions to understand their true exposure and to make informed decisions about risk management and portfolio steering.

A data-driven approach

The June 2026 deadline isn't just another compliance requirement for financial institutions to navigate. It’s a step towards climate resilience, where integrating location data into climate risk assessments will create a real competitive advantage.

For retail banks, this means understanding which areas of the mortgage portfolio are showing an increasing risk of flooding, affecting value and presenting higher potential for default. Insurers can also see which areas pose the highest claim risk and make smarter decisions about what they'll cover.

It means that both financial institutions can move beyond generic models, to create tailored assessments that reflect their actual asset locations, adjusting lending criteria with confidence. It also allows institutions to put aside appropriate reserves based on risk concentrations.

The path forward

As we approach June 2026, successful institutions will be those that invest in accurate location data and integrate it into their climate risk frameworks. The Bank of England's new standards are a turning point, with financial institutions now needing to demonstrate that they understand their exposure to climate perils, and the transition risks as they navigate towards a more resilient future, through precise, location-based analysis.

With OS data as the foundation – alongside the support of the OS Partner network – financial institutions can move confidently towards compliance.

Find out more visit www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/industries/finance where you can get in touch with the OS team to find the best Partner for you.