More Lenders Join in Pledge to Safeguard Environment
By CLAUDIA H. DEUTSCH
Published: July 6, 2006
Three years ago, 10 financial institutions — with Citigroup the only United States company on the list — announced that they would abide by the Equator Principles, a set of standards intended to ensure that the large projects they financed did not have a harmful impact on the environment or local population.
Since then, the Equator Principles Financial Institutions, as the group calls itself, has swelled to 41 members across the globe, including three more American companies: Wells Fargo, J. P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America. And today the group is expected to announce an expanded version of its guidelines as well.
The new principles will apply to any project with a capital cost of more than $10 million, down from $50 million in the original version, as well as to upgrades and expansions of older projects.
The expanded principles require an institution's financial advisers to vet new projects for environmental and social impact when they are being designed, rather than wait until they actually apply for financing. They also now include guidelines for labor practices on projects, and require institutions to report publicly on their processes for complying with the principles.
The original Equator Principles adopted most of the guidelines set by the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank's private-sector arm. That group recently expanded its own guidelines, and the financial institutions have adopted those as well....
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/06/business/worldbusiness/06equator.html