Reports by news.com.au and finance.nine.com.au of a "secret" relationship between Commonwealth Bank and Adani have misinterpreted and misrepresented the role of ordinary transaction banking accounts used by thousands of Australian businesses and consumers.

A transaction account does not equate to business lending or project finance. In making that inference, both finance.nine.com.au and news.com.au have misled readers.

Commonwealth Bank cannot discuss the details of individual customers. But it is important to fact-check the differences between transaction accounts and business lending.

Transaction accounts allow people and organisations to make payments using their own money. They are vital for Australian businesses and consumers to handle their day-to-day affairs.

Business lending is a separate product class.

In all of our business lending, Commonwealth Bank is guided by strict environmental, social and governance standards that are incorporated into our business lending decisions.

We will only fund projects that meet these standards. This has been the case since 2014.

We have been lending to renewable energy projects since 2004.

As at December 2016, our lending to the renewables sector was $2.3 billion. This is approximately five times the amount of our lending to coal-fired power generation.

We have been measuring and reporting on how we are reducing our environmental footprint since 2001.

As a major financial institution, we believe we need to take a balanced, measured and responsible approach as we support the transition to a low-carbon economy.