20 February 2012 - Forest Peoples Programme

Principle 3 provides the ‘Applicable Social and Environmental Standards’ which are supposed to be implemented according to the requirements of the remaining 9 principles. The Applicable Social and Environmental Standards are the Performance Standards of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) plus other relevant Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines, although ‘justified deviation’ from these standards is permitted. In August 2011, the IFC Board adopted a revised set of Performance Standards and, in late 2011, the Equator Principles Association adopted these revised IFC Performance Standards in their entirety into the Applicable Social & Environmental Standards, Principle 3, of the Equator Principles. This incorporation became effective on 1 January, 2012. Read More.

15 February 2012 - CSR Asia, Brian Ho

Since the second half of 2011 there have been various news reports about the difficulties for companies, especially small and medium sized enterprises, to receive business loans in China due to a tightening of bank policy. Some banks have been criticised for increasing the interest rates through different measures and causing SMEs in China to go for usurious loans. There are some cases where business people have committed suicide or have become “runaway bosses” as they cannot repay the business loan. However, when comparing the banking industry with other industries, profit in the financial sector is maintained at high level. Criticism about the social responsibility of banks, especially state-owned ones, has appeared in mainstream media and the public has come to the consensus that banks should be more socially responsible and support those companies and local economies that need help. CSR has become an important agenda for the banking industry. Read More.

The EP Association is continuing internal discussions with its members on the first draft of EP III and as a result the overall timeline for the EP III Update process has been extended.

Please see below a summary of the new timeline*:

• EP Association consultation period and initial drafting of the EP III (September 2011 - March 2012).
• Formal  60 day (minimum) Stakeholder Consultation and Public Comment Process (March - April 2012).
• Finalisation and launch of the EP III framework (May - July 2012).

*The timeline might be subject to further extension if deemed necessary.

The EP Association would like re-emphasise that it is committed to carrying out a robust and consultative process therefore appreciates the patience of stakeholders and look forwards sharing the first draft of EP III with stakeholders in early Spring.

The EP Association will aim to be open and transparent during the EP III Update process, and we welcome feedback and comments from any interested party on both process and substance. If you have not already joined the EP Association mailing list you can register your interest here.

Lomé, 1 January 2012

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the parent company of the Ecobank Group, announces its adoption of the Equator Principles, the industry standard for financial institutions active in project finance. Ecobank will apply the principles to project finance activities in all relevant sectors and across all of the 30 countries in Middle Africa in which it operates. 

10 December 2011 - Prizma Blog

Prizma’s Bill Kennedy was recently invited to participate at the 6^th Sustainability Management Conference in Seoul, Korea.  The focus of the event, sponsored by the Korean Standards Association and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, was an examination of the IFC Performance Standards, the Equator Principles and OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the way in which companies and banks have been responding to them.  Read More.

8 December 2011 - Business Day Online, Ayodele Oni

The Equator Principles represent a credit risk management framework for determining, assessing and managing environmental and social risk for transactions requiring Project Finance. Project finance on the other hand, is a means of funding in which the lender or financier looks primarily to the revenues generated a project, as opposed to the balance sheet, both as the source of repayment and as security for the exposure. Project Finance, plays an important role in financing energy projects and infrastructural development throughout the world. This financing method, is usually for large, complex and expensive installations, infrastructure and structures and would include, for example, power plants, chemical processing plants, mines, transportation infrastructure such as trains and telecommunications infrastructure. Read More.

7 December 2011

The IFC has updated its Sustainability Framework, which includes the newly revised Performance Standards, and the IFC will be applying them from 1 January 2012. Consistent with the current Equator Principles (EP) framework, the EP Association Steering Committee has agreed that the newly revised IFC Performance Standards will also take effect for EP Association Members on 1 January 2012. Accordingly Exhibit III of the EPs (which refers to the 2006 IFC Performance Standards) will be updated on 1 January 2012 to reflect their implementation by EP Association members under the current EP framework.

29 November 2011 - Project Finance Magazine

There has been persistent scepticism about the Equator Principles’ ability to encourage best practice at participating banks. But evidence from the mining industry is that they are changing sponsor behaviour. By Christopher Langdon and Claudia O’Brien, partners, Latham & Watkins. Since 2003, Equator Principles financial institutions, most of them major banks, have provided about 85% of the world’s project finance capacity. These institutions provide financing only to projects that comply with the Equator Principles, a voluntary set of guidelines designed to ensure large projects are financed in socially and environmentally responsible ways. Read More.

17 November 2011 - China Daily, Wei Tian

The carbon market in China has "substantial" potential, and will be decisive to the global carbon price once a national system emerges, Rachel Kyte, Vice-President of the World Bank, said on Wednesday. … Kyte called for more Chinese banks to sign up for the Equator Principles, a set of guidelines that require signatory banks to take into account environmental and social issues when financing development projects.  … "Chinese banks are increasingly global players, and it would be important to see major banks in China adopting a principle that is also globally recognized," Kyte said. Read More.

The Equator Principles Association has begun compiling its second major revision to the eponymous guidelines for managing environmental and social risks in project finance. The association held its largest ever annual meeting last month, with close to 100 people attending, where options for revising the principles were presented. The review follows a revision to the International Finance Corporation Performance Standards, upon which the Equator Principles are based, and an independent report published earlier this year. Read More.