Who and where are the Equator Banks? - IILJ

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Our survey revealed that there is a vanguard of about four leading Equator
Banks, in terms of their commitment to and development of the Principles.
These banks were responsible for drafting and negotiating the Principles
with the IFC. They liaise with each other on a regular basis and are at the
forefront of development of policies and procedures.
There follows a chasing pack of banks, which have demonstrated very real
commitment to the Principles from top to bottom of their organisations.
Behind the chasing pack are some ‘solid citizens’ who, while not leading
the way on the Principles, nevertheless contribute fully to their
development.
There is, however, a fourth group of Equator Banks about which less
positive views are expressed by NGOs and even by some of the Equator
Banks and leading non-Equator Banks. It is said that members of this group
do little project finance work, or have done little more than put their
adoption of the Equator Principles on their websites and free-ride on the
efforts of the other Equator Banks.
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Our survey revealed pockets of deep ignorance about the Principles, but
also that the Equator Banks are putting a great deal of resources, money and
effort into training staff in order to correct this shortcoming. Former IFC
staff provide much of this training on a consultancy basis. However, several
Equator Banks have a self-standing IFC training package which can be run
internally.
Some banks only train very senior people, while others put all front-line
staff through the programme.
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Some banks already had significant in-house expertise, although usually
only on environmental risk assessment. There is also a wide variation in
numbers of staff deployed on Equator work. Some banks only employ a
small specialist unit, while others have rapidly expanded their teams. There
has been some outside recruitment, but in most cases staff have been
redeployed internally.
Few banks have panels of external expert advisers on social and
environmental matters, although a small number of Equator Banks
suggested that they had at this stage sufficient expertise in-house to provide
complete coverage of all relevant issues.
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