The Equator Principles

In June 2003, leading high street banks announced the creation of the Equator Principles (EPs). These voluntary Principles -revised in June 2006- commit signatory banks to follow the environmental and social guidelines (Performance Standards) of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group. The Principles have become the de facto standard for all banks and investors on how to deal with potential social and environmental effects of projects to be financed.

Making a public commitment is one thing; applying them in good faith quite another. While some banks have made a genuine effort to implement the Principles and even extended their scope to non-project finance and publicly reported on these efforts, others have left the public wondering what it all means by being secretive on how adopting the EPs made a difference to them.

BankTrack has monitored the launch and development of the Equator Principles from the very beginning. While we value the Equator Principles as a commitment, we continue to have major concerns on the non-transparent way they are being applied, leaving stakeholder effectively in the dark on their effects. You can read about our concerns in numerous reports published since 2003.

In January 2010 BankTrack summarised its concerns aobut the Equator Principles in an open letter to Equator banks.