In August this year the Dutch Banking Sector Agreement on Human Rights (DBSA) released its first annual report together with three other publications. This is the second in a series of articles examining these publications, and focusses on the Increasing Leverage paper. With enough leverage you can move the world, as Archimedes told us. But how much leverage do banks really have to move their clients to avoid or address human rights abuses? In a 2013 paper by the Thun Group, seven European banks argued that, given the competitive market they work…

The June 2013 version of the Equator Principles (EPs) included new requirements for Equator Principles Financial Institutions (EPFIs) to report on projects financed under the EPs. Under the current Principles (EP3), EPFIs are required to report the total number of Project Finance and Project Related Corporate Loan transactions – by sector, region, country designation and whether or not an Independent Review has been carried out. The names of projects financed, the year of financial closure and the host country should also be reported, but…