Saudi Aramco is quickly moving forward with plans to float up to three percent of the national oil company in an Initial Public Offering (IPO). Seven banks have been reported to be joint global coordinators of the offering: Bank of America, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley. A coalition of environmental groups – Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack, Earthworks, Friends of the Earth U.S., Global Witness, Indigenous Environmental Network, Oil Change International, ShareAction, Sierra…

Today, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) and the Swiss bank Credit Suisse concluded a mediation process, facilitated by the Swiss National Contact Point (NCP), in the context of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Credit Suisse has resolved to incorporate the protection of indigenous communities’ rights into its internal guidelines on project financing. The STP welcomes this important step as a clear signal for the entire financial sector. However, it expects CS, as well as the other financial institutions, to extend…

Market Forces has lodged shareholder resolutions with NAB, ANZ and Westpac, calling on the three major banks to reduce their exposure to coal, oil and gas in line with the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. The resolutions come after the major banks have continued to lend heavily to the fossil fuel sector, with exposures to coal mining and oil and gas extraction increasing alarmingly recently. The resolutions ask for the banks to set targets to reduce exposure to fossil fuels in line with the Paris Agreement and will be voted on at the banks’…

Thirty-one civil society groups from around the world have sent an open letter to Alison Rose, the newly appointed CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), calling on her to turn the lender into a climate change leader by formally ending the bank's financial support for the coal, oil and gas sectors. The groups also welcomed Rose’s appointment as the first woman to lead one of the UK’s ‘big four’ banks. The new RBS CEO is an advocate of gender equality, and has thrown light on the challenges faced by women in the banking…