Equator banks finishing their annual meeting in Singapore yesterday agreed on a new set of Equator Principles that contain no meaningful improvements, and completely fail to meet the challenges of protecting Indigenous peoples’ rights and combating climate change. Ignoring a passionate call last week from 312 civil society groups from 58 countries to ‘act with courage and ambition’ and take bold action on climate change and human rights, the Equator Principles Association (EPA) instead has opted for continuing with ‘business…

On October 28th, 2019, the OECD launched new guidance on Due Diligence for Responsible Corporate Lending and Securities Underwriting (hereinafter “the guidance”). The guidance is based and elaborates on the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, providing authoritative clarifications of banks’ responsibilities to prevent adverse impacts on human rights and the environment. This is the OECD’s second guidance paper on responsible business conduct in the financial sector, following the 2017 guidance on Responsible Business…

Saudi Arabia has announced that the long-heralded partial IPO of its national oil company, Saudi Aramco, will be drastically scaled back. The banks that were about to go on the road to sell shares to investors in Asia, Europe and North America have been told to cancel these plans as the shares will now only be formally marketed to investors in Saudi Arabia and allied Gulf states. Reports indicate that the Saudi regime’s desired valuation for Aramco was substantially more than international investors were prepared…

Environmental campaigning organisations have reacted with astonishment today on the appointment of Standard Chartered as leader of the Equator Principles, given the role the bank has played in multiple recent and current deals that clearly violate these principles. “Standard Chartered has been a repeat offender of the Equator Principles in recent years,” said Julien Vincent, Market Forces Executive Director. “Even as it assumes this leadership role, it remains involved in a deal for the proposed Vung Ang 2 coal power plant in…

National Australia Bank (NAB)’s Sustainability Report, released today, is little more than greenwash and a recipe for climate catastrophe, says environmental finance group Market Forces. In particular, its central announcement to exit thermal coal mining by 2035 is a clear example of too little too late, falling short of time frames necessary to hold global warming to 1.5ºC and investor expectations for the elimination of thermal coal. Signatories to the Global Investor Statement on Climate Change – a group of investors worth USD…

Ahead of Climate Finance Day in Paris and the UN Climate Summit in Madrid, BankTrack and the Unfriend Coal campaign, in partnership with Friends of the Earth France, are calling on French financial institutions to seize the opportunity by immediately freezing business relationships with more than 400 companies which are engaged in developing new coal projects worldwide. In a briefing published today which analyses French financial institutions’ coal financing and policies, the groups reveal that BNP Paribas is the largest French financier…