BankTrack, the international NGO network monitoring the banking sector, today presents Close the Gap, an extensive research project on the quality of lending and investment policies of major international banks [1]. The results are available as a report and online website section. The aim of the research project was to evaluate to what extent banks have incorporated sustainability criteria into their lending and investment policies. To assess the quality of policies, BankTrack has evaluated the policies of 49 banks from 17 countries for seven key business sectors and on nine sustainability issues.[2] In addition, the project reviews the performance of banks on transparency and accountability. All policies are scored on a scale from 0 to 5, using a benchmark developed by BankTrack in cooperation with Profundo, an economic research consultancy. To stimulate banks to make public commitment on their sustainability goals, the assessment only includes policies that are placed in the public domain and can be reviewed by the public. The report also only focuses on the commitments made in the policies itself; it does not assess banks’ implementation of the policies. More…

Source: BankTrack