World Bank Raises The Bar On Human Rights. Will Private Banks Follow?

Last December, I hinted that the World Bank was moving to adopt stronger new standards on Indigenous rights. After nearly three years of deliberation, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private lending arm of the World Bank, announced its revised Sustainability Framework last month. As the largest source of international financing for companies in the [...]

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Banks on Notice: Dump Enbridge!

As Canadians were casting their votes in the Federal Election, another important decision was playing out in the board rooms of Canada’s top banks: what to do with Enbridge, sponsor of the Northern Gateway Pipeline. Over the last several weeks, RAN  teamed up with First Nations of the Yinka Dene Alliance to put senior banking [...]

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Bank of Montreal Confronted on Indigenous Rights

CEO Bill Downe’s unmistakable message at today’s Shareholder Meeting was that Bank of Montreal has changed. During his 10 minute speech, “change” showed up 14 times! The “world has changed” he declared. “Embrace change.” “If there’s one thing I hope you take away from these remarks,” he concluded, “it’s that BMO is changing.” I half [...]

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Citizens Occupy PNC: The Bank of Mountaintop Removal

UPDATE: Four brave activists were arrested at today’s PNC sit-in, including Reverend Billy Talen, George Lakey, Alexa Ross and Liz Nerat. Today, as part of Appalachia Rising, the largest protest against mountaintop removal coal mining in history, 35 concerned citizens staged a sit-in at PNC’s flagship bank here Washington DC. Currently, PNC Bank is the [...]

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Bank of America’s Coal Investments Revisited

Abigail: Thursday, June 26 Activists in Charlotte paid a visit to B of A’s headquarters today, holding a banner that read “DIVEST FROM COAL” and passing out information on the bank’s dirty energy investments to bank employees and passers-by. We were visited a few times by some cops on Segways (you know, those electro-gyroscopic scooters), [...]

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