The tar sands tide may finally be turning at Canada's biggest bank. RBC is among the largest financiers of Canada's Tar Sands but so far lacks policies adopted by other banks that seek to limit harm to Indigenous rights, water quality and climate.

That may be changing. Last week, representatives from RBC showed us a summary of the new draft Environmental Risk policy that it hopes will fill the gap. It's too early to draw conclusions- the early draft has yet to be ratified by the bank's Senior Management-but here's our initial take on where we see progress relative to other banks, and where we still see distance.

Bottom line, we think bank is moving in the right direction on Indigenous rights and the environment but falls well short of establishing a significantly new standard…read more

Just one day before their Annual General Shareholder meeting, JPMorgan Chase released their 2009 Corporate Responsibility Report including its first public statement on financing for companies that practice mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining. As laid out in the CR report, JPMorgan "has…read more

A new report card issued by Rainforest Action Network, the Sierra Club and BankTrack ranks nine of the largest banks backing dangerous and devastating mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining projects. Among the nine graded are Bank of America, Citi, Credit Suisse, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase,…read more