Westpac chief executive Peter King said its struggling institutional bank still has capacity to fund the decarbonisation of the economy and its retreat from Asia will not concede opportunities to ANZ.

With financing the global energy transition a focus at COP26 in Glasgow, Mr King said Westpac – which was building leading carbon trading capabilities across the region a decade ago but had to retreat when the market did not grow as quickly as expected – remained keen to lend into the transition to low carbon energy.