BANKS DODGY DEALS CAMPAIGNS
About BankTrack
Visit us
Organisation
Our team
Our board
Guiding principles
Team up with us
Jobs at BankTrack
Our annual reports
Funding and finances
History
BankTrack in the media
Our privacy policy
International Bank Campaigners Gathering
Donate
2023-05-25 00:00:00
Philippines communities are fighting back against gas & LNG build-out in the Verde Island Passage
2023-03-17 00:00:00
Briefing: The role of financial institutions in decarbonising the steel sector
2023-03-09 00:00:00
Dutch bank ING supports controversial pipeline to import gas from authoritarian Azerbaijan
2023-02-23 00:00:00
Financial institutions need to address steelmaking’s coal addiction
2023-05-17 14:30:30
EACOP Financial Advisor SMBC is no longer involved with the project
2023-03-28 13:43:00
French bank Société Générale withdraws from Rio Grande LNG
2023-03-20 08:50:41
Who dares to finance Eni and Exxon’s dangerous Rovuma gas plans in Mozambique?
2023-03-14 14:59:00
New ING policy could spark bank shift away from financing oil and gas infrastructure
Connect
2023-05-03 00:00:00
A Rotten Business: How Barclays became the go-to bank for JBS, one of the world's most destructive meat corporations
2023-04-13 00:00:00
Banking on Climate Chaos 2023
2023-04-12 00:00:00
The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP): Finance Risk Update No. 4
2023-03-29 00:00:00
BankTrack Annual Report 2022
See all publications
Sections
Banks Dodgy Deals Campaigns
Our campaigns
Banks and Climate
Banks and Human Rights
Banks and Nature
Banks and Pandemics
Our projects
Tracking the NZBA
Banks and Putin's war in Ukraine
Tracking the Equator Principles
Tracking the PRBs
Banks and steel
End Coal Finance
Find a Better Bank
Banks and the OECD Guidelines
Media
News Publications
Fossil Banks No Thanks StopEACOP Forests & Finance Banks & Biodiversity Drop JBS Bank of Coal Don't Buy into Occupation
BankTrack
About BankTrack Visit us Organisation Our team Our board Guiding principles Team up with us Jobs at BankTrack Our annual reports Funding and finances History BankTrack in the media Our privacy policy International Bank Campaigners Gathering Donate
Successes Contact BankTrack
Donate Mailing list Facebook Twitter Login
Home › Partner news ›
Partner News

Friends of the Earth groups complaint against ING Group admissible, declares OECD

2020-01-20 | Amsterdam
By: Milieudefensie & OECD Watch
Contact:

Milieudefensie/Friends of the Earth Netherlands 

Man with barrow full of oil palm nuts on plantation in Riau, Indonesia. Photo: By Milieudefensie/Myrthe Verwey
2020-01-20 | Amsterdam
By: Milieudefensie & OECD Watch
Contact:

Milieudefensie/Friends of the Earth Netherlands 

AMSTERDAM, 20 January 2020 - The Dutch National Contact Point for the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) today declared a complaint from three Friends of the Earth groups (Milieudefensie (Netherlands), SDI (Liberia) and WALHI (Indonesia)) against Dutch bank ING admissible. This complaint is unique in that for the first time a company is accused of ‘contributing to’ rather than being merely ‘linked to’ wrongdoing. The complaint is supported by several other international organizations ReAct, Fian Belgium, Brot für alle, FERN and CNCD-11.11.11.

Anne Wijers, from Friends of the Earth Netherlands, “ING has been ignoring abuses in the palm oil sector for years. For decades we’ve been alerting ING to concrete examples of abuses by the palm oil companies they finance. During this time abuses on the ground have continued unabated and ING continues financing these companies. So we have reached the point where it’s fair to say ING are complicit in the abuses.”

The Indonesian environmental organization WALHI (Friends of the Earth Indonesia) and the Liberian Sustainable Development Institute SDI (Friends of the Earth Liberia) are co-complainants. James Otto from SDI says, “We're confronted with these abuses every day. Local people are robbed of their income and do not get work as promised on plantations. People who do work there are injured, being exploited and live in miserable conditions.”

Oslan Purba, from WALHI recognizes the abuses described by Otto and highlights that deforestation and land grabbing are systemic in the palm oil sector, “What matters to us is that we have been presenting case after case for 20 years, yet European financial institutions continue financing palm oil companies. Dutch banks are seen as pioneers in the field of sustainability and human rights, but in practice we do not see them effectively encouraging the companies they work with to improve their behavior.”  

Although the complaint from the three organizations can be read as an anthology of abuses, they reveal a much larger, underlying problem, “ING’s CSR policy is merely a paper tiger. Their policy is to avoid such abuses. But this is not the reality: reported abuses persist for a long time or are not solved at all. This complaint demonstrates once again that we need binding legislation for financial institutions to put an end to dubious investments," Milieudefensie’s Anne Wijers says.

WALHI, SDI and Milieudefensie have asked the OECD Dutch National Contact Point (NCP) to mediate and, if necessary, decide if ING is adhering to its own CSR policy. The organizations are particularly critical of ING because of its lack of awareness of existing abuses, underestimation of the extent of known abuses and inability to resolve them adequately. The organizations are also asking the OECD to clarify the conditions under which ING can be held responsible for the actions of companies they work with, the impact of their abuses and in what way ING should meaningfully contribute to remedies. The NCP is unlikely to make a final ruling on the complaint until spring 2021. Until then, the process will take place behind closed doors.

LINK: The Dutch NCP's initial assessment of the case

LINK: Case Entry in OECD Watch's database

Banks

ING

Netherlands
Active
Dodgy Deals
There are no active company profiles for this item now.

Socfin

Luxembourg
Company
on record
Agriculture for Palm Oil | ...

Socfin

Luxembourg

Wilmar International

Singapore
Company
on record
Agriculture for Palm Oil

Wilmar International

Singapore
Sections
Banks Policies Dodgy Deals Campaigns
Our campaigns
Banks and Climate Banks and Human Rights Banks and Nature Banks and Pandemics
Our projects
Tracking the NZBA Banks and Putin's war in Ukraine Tracking the Equator Principles Tracking the PRBs Banks and steel End Coal Finance Find a Better Bank Banks and the OECD Guidelines
Media
News Publications
Fossil Banks No Thanks StopEACOP Forests & Finance Banks & Biodiversity Drop JBS Bank of Coal Don't Buy into Occupation
BankTrack
About BankTrack Visit us Organisation Our team Our board Guiding principles Team up with us Jobs at BankTrack Our annual reports Funding and finances History BankTrack in the media Our privacy policy International Bank Campaigners Gathering Donate
Successes Contact BankTrack
Vismarkt 15
6511 VJ Nijmegen
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 24 324 9220
Contact@banktrack.org
Donate Mailing list Facebook Twitter
©2022 BankTrack
BankTrack is a registered charity in the Netherlands (ANBI) - RSIN 813874658
Find our privacy policy here

Stay up to date

Sign up now for all BankTrack's news


Make a comment

Your comment will be reviewed, before being posted