We're cross-posting this blog from our colleagues at Counter Balance which describes some of the urgent new developments and controversies engulfing the TAP gas project in Italy. TAP is a BankTrack Dodgy Deal, and it remains to be seen which private banks are waiting in the wings to participate in the project. An EBRD green light for the project is viewed as essential for private bank involvement. Yet, as this new blog details, the multi-lateral is becoming further bogged down in persistent project problems which have not been resolved for…

This spring, some of America’s biggest commercial banks gathered for their annual general meetings (AGMs). Historically, there usually isn’t much action surrounding these meetings -- shareholders and executives gather in an office park or event center somewhere and take votes on various resolutions related to the bank’s business practices and investments. But this year, the growing movement calling on banks to stop funding dirty and dangerous fossil fuel projects took these meetings by storm as people seek to hold banks accountable…

With the Brexit saga rumbling on in the UK, if there’s one thing that can be said about the recently concluded UK bank AGM season it’s that Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered are pursuing their own particular form of isolationism from their European counterparts. This relates to how the UK’s big three have been positioning themselves in recent weeks with regard to their continuing (alas, yes!) financing for coal power globally. The coal power policy noises that have been emerging from Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered as…