Private Sector Banks
In recent years, an increasing number of civil society organizations have placed increasing attention on the private financial sector (commercial banks, investors, insurance companies, pension funds) and its effect on people and the planet.
This focus was intensified in June 2003 when a number of leading banks announced the creation of the Equator Principles (EPs). These voluntary Principles commit signatory banks to follow the environmental and social Performance Standards of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector lending arm of the World Bank Group.
Although this is a step in the right direction, many groups point out that the Principles are completely voluntary and that the Banks themselves are not very transparent in how they apply them. As a result, some banks have made a genuine effort to implement the Principles and have even extended their scope to non-project finance and to publicly report on these efforts. Others have left the public wondering how adopting the EPs has made any difference.
The EP banks now include over 50 banks and more than 80 per cent of global project finance. Among them are a number of Canadian banks including:
On October 25, 2007, Export Development Canada became the second export credit agency, after Denmark, to join the Equator Principles.
To date, the Halifax Initiative Coalition only monitors public financial institutions, such as the International Finance Corporation and export credit agencies. As a result, we have no public position on the Equator Principles, but keep a watching brief on this file for both our members and the Canadian public.
That said, Banktrack, a network of civil society organizations, is actively engaged in monitoring the EP banks.
