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
Donate
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
2023-02-07 00:00:00
What COP15 means for banks: meeting the Global Biodiversity Framework requires protecting Indigenous rights and divesting from harmful industries
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
2023-02-24 13:46:14
Pego power station conversion plans halted
2022-12-14 11:08:26
HSBC announces it will no longer finance new oil and gas fields
Connect
2022-11-22 00:00:00
Banking on Thin Ice: Two years in the heat
2022-11-17 00:00:00
BankTrack Global Human Rights Benchmark 2022
2022-10-21 00:00:00
Burning forests in the name of clean energy? How banks are failing to exclude the harmful wood biomass industry from finance
2022-06-28 00:00:00
The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP): Finance Risk Update No. 3
2022-04-05 00:00:00
The BankTrack Human Rights Benchmark Asia
2022-03-30 00:00:00
Banking on Climate Chaos 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
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 Donate
Successes Contact BankTrack
Donate Mailing list Facebook Twitter Login
Home › Partner news ›
Partner News

New database addresses lack of transparency about financial intermediary investments of IFC, FMO

2021-12-01
By: International Accountability Project, Oxfam International & Profundo
Contact:

Matt Grainger, Oxfam, matt.grainger@oxfam.org, +44-07730680837 

Photo of the Srekor village in Stung Treng, Cambodia, taken by a local resident.. Photo: Via Oxfam
2021-12-01
By: International Accountability Project, Oxfam International & Profundo
Contact:

Matt Grainger, Oxfam, matt.grainger@oxfam.org, +44-07730680837 

Also see the blog on Medium.com which accompanies this news release: "Financial Intermediary sub-project data exposed for the first time".

A coalition of organisations has published a new database today revealing $38.2 billion worth of investment and financial relationships – including “high-risk” projects – that involve 318 financial intermediary clients of Dutch development bank FMO and the World Bank’s private lending arm, the IFC. 

The organisations that crunched the database numbers are Oxfam, economic research agency Profundo, the International Accountability Project and the Early Warning System.

The database is important in countering claims by big development institutions like FMO and IFC that such information is “commercially confidential” and that it is too difficult for them to meet the levels of transparency demanded by civil society and local communities who may be harmfully affected by these lending projects. 

The database reveals the destination of investments from FMO and IFC-funded clients across at least 76 countries from 2017-20. In total, the database tracks the money flows from FMO and IFC down through the 318 financial intermediaries to 12,800 private actors.

The IFC and FMO are both heavily involved in this growing form of development financing, where development banks invest directly into third-party “financial intermediaries” like hedge funds and commercial banks via loans, equity and guarantees, on the premise it will extend their financial reach and raise standards. In 2020 around 60% - or $6.7 billion – of the IFC’s entire investment portfolio was exposed via financial intermediaries, and around 40% or €3.7 billion for the FMO. 

However, these financial intermediary clients of IFC and FMO invest in different development activities down-stream, including “high-risk projects” with the potential to harm people and the environment such as companies involved in mining and oil extraction projects. 

There is growing evidence of such harmful projects like the Lower Sesan 2 dam in Cambodia that flooded out entire villages and the New Liberty Gold Mine in Liberia which displaced people, exacerbated poverty and polluted local water sources. These projects were funded via FMO or IFC intermediary clients, but affected communities were not adequately consulted or given access to information in order to seek redress. 

“FMO's lack of transparency about their investments in financial institutions makes it impossible to monitor whether environmental and social standards are being enforced. The lack of clarity about where FMO's money ends up makes it very difficult to determine the impact of these investments. But above all, it means that local communities affected by risky or harmful projects    are unable to find out who is behind the investments, what protection they can demand and where to find redress,” said Imke Greven, land rights expert Oxfam Novib. 

“Local communities do not have access to this kind of information about financial flows. Access to such information is a human right in itself and this database can play an important role in that. Failure to publish such information by development banks and their financial intermediaries is a choice. This newly developed database shows that it is possible,” said Ryan Schlief, Executive Director International Accountability Project. 

“It is appalling that development finance institutions still don’t disclose such basic information. There is no reason for them to make it so hard to allow access to such basic information when they should have it as part of their due diligence and make it accessible,” said Christian Donaldson, Senior Policy Advisor at Oxfam International. 

“Last year, the IFC became the first institution to commit to disclose this information on its website, even though we are still waiting for that to happen. We strongly encourage other development finance institutions to follow suit. This database shows it is perfectly possible to do so,” Donaldson said. 

“For NGOs to develop this database is a time-consuming and costly process due to the limited resources and limited information available to them. As such, the database represents only the tip of the iceberg since researchers don’t have access to the internal accounts of the financial institutions and the resources available to the development banks. The research has shown that it is possible to provide detailed financial intermediary disclosure. Now it is up to the DFIs to do so themselves,” said Ward Warmerdam, Senior Financial Researcher, Profundo.

You can explore and access the data through the Early Warning System platform. 

Banks

FMO

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

Lower Sesan 2 dam

Cambodia
Project
On record
Hydroelectric Power Generation

Lower Sesan 2 dam

Cambodia
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 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 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