In February, BankTrack coordinated and sent an open letter to the 11 banks that signed a Discussion Paper by the Thun Group, calling for the paper's withdrawal. The paper took as its starting point that banks do not contribute to human rights abuses through their finance, flying in the face of UN advice on banks’ human rights responsibilities. The concerns raised in the letter were quickly echoed by others, and following further discussions the paper was revised in December, partially addressing the concerns. 

In 2013 the seven-strong Thun Group of Banks' produced a discussion paper on banks' responsibilities under new UN human rights guidelines. BankTrack's response to the paper highlighted that the banks had failed to address their responsibility to provide access to remedy to victims of human rights abuses. After we pushed the point further at a conference with the banks in 2014, they agreed to "explore options for addressing ... access to remedy." We look forward to the outcome.

Coal India Limited's attempt at a public share issue was successfully blocked in late 2013. The Indian government, the company's majority shareholder, hoped toraise USD 3 billion through the sale of 10% of its stake in the world's largest coal miner. Banktrack was part of a coalition of groups including Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network and urgewald that pressured the banks underwriting the share offer (Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs) for their involvement with a company with a notorious environmental and human rights record. Read more [external link].

After sustained campaigning by RAN, eight of Wall Street's biggest banks have developed public policies limiting their appetite for investment in mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining. By 2011, MTR policies or statements had been released by banks including Credit Suisse, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, PNC bank and UBS. The policies were assessed by RAN in the 2011 MTR report card. RAN and others continue to scrutinize implementation of these policies.

Bowing to civil society pressure, Credit Suisse for the first time published summaries of its internal guidelines and instructions for dealing with industries whose social and environmental record is cause for concern. The Berne Declaration welcomed the bank's move towards more transparency but at the same time regrets that human rights received so little attention in the partly published guidelines.