In March 2017, Dutch bank ING announced the sale of the USD 120 million share of loan debt in the highly controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). ING already dumped its shares in the DAPL project companies earlier this year, and decided to sell the loan debt after engagemnent with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The bank has also committed to advocate for Indigenous rights in future project financing. See here for BankTrack's reaction. 

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. 

Mired in a major international corruption scandal, the proposed Punta Catalina coal plant in the Dominican Republic became untouchable for Deutsche Bank, ING, Santander, Société Générale and Unicredit in 2017. As the gravity of the situation surrounding the project’s construction company Odebrecht intensified, the five bank consortium suspended its financing of the project, triggering a panicked turn to the international bond markets by the Dominican government in order to find some way of keeping the project afloat. BankTrack maintained regular contact with the lead consortium banks throughout the year, in tandem with our Dominican partner group National Committee to Combat Climate Change (CNLCC). We brought CNLCC’s Enrique de León to the AGMs of Deutsche Bank and Société Générale where he received public assurances from senior bank executives that they would be taking a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to corruption at Punta Catalina.  

In December ING set a new bar in the commercial banking sector for restricting finance to companies involved in coal power, setting 2025 as its target date for reducing its exposure to coal power to ‘close to zero’. Its new commitments, which cover both lending and underwriting, will have impacts on existing clients including European utility giants ENEL, RWE, ENGIE and ČEZ, which face the risk of being jettisoned by ING in the coming years if they do not take steps to become coal free by 2025. BankTrack has regularly engaged with ING, helping to keep ambitious coal finance restrictions high on the bank’s agenda. However the new policy advance comes with gaps that will need to be plugged if its approach to coal is to be truly ‘Paris compliant’.  

In February ABN AMRO, ING, BayernLB and Nordea all announced they would step away from financing either the project or its backers. ABN AMRO committed to end its financing for Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) if the pipeline proceeds without consent from the Standing Rock Sioux or with further violence. Nordea excluded three companies behind the Dakota Access Pipeline from investment. BayernLB stated it will withdraw from financing DAPL at the earliest opportunity, and not provide further finance. In March, ING became the first bank to sell its portion of a project loan supporting the pipeline. This was followed by DNB and by BNP Paribas selling on their shares of the loan. The buyers are unknown.

In 2015, US bank PNC, UK bank Barclays and Dutch bank ING all announced new commitments to cut finance for the controversial practice of mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining. These banks join JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, RBS, BNP Paribas, and UBS - banks that have already committed to cut ties with firms that specialize in mountaintop removal.

In May, Bank of America and Crédit Agricole became the first major banks to announce plans to stop financing coal mining. These announcements marked a hugely significant win and a breakthrough moment in the fight to end financing for the coal industry. The second half of 2015, in the run-up to the make-or-break UN climate change conference in Paris, then saw important coal finance restrictions being announced by institutions including Citi, Natixis, Goldman Sachs, Société Générale, BNP Paribas, ING and RBS. All these moves are captured here – significantly, a number of banks have chosen not just to get out of coal mining, but are also extending into ending their support for coal power. 

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.

The Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA) in Argentina threw its support behind the ongoing campaign to stop the controversial Botnia paper mill in Uruguay and lodged the world's first ever Equator Principle compliance complaint against ING Group. ING subsequently withdrew its share in a US$480m finance package for the mill. After Nordea Bank stepped in to replace ING, CEDHA filed an OECD complaint, which (although not upheld) firmly established the applicability of the Guidelines to the finance sector. Sadly, the pulp mill was built and is now in operation.