With collective assets totalling $47 trillion, 130 banks, including a range of major international players, will sign up to the UN Principles for Responsible Banking at an official launch in New York this coming Sunday.
Aspirational initiatives for the banking industry such as these latest principles have a habit of cropping up every few years. They also have a habit of not bringing about discernible positive change – either within the banking sector or, more widely, in society.
So what should the Principles for Responsible Banking signatory banks be committing to in order to make good on this ambitiously-monikered framework which has been developed under the stewardship of the UN’s Environmental Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)? Beyond the edgy, right-on ad campaigns which continually gush from their PR departments, how are banks now planning to shake off their lack of responsibility towards – if not consistent abuse of – society, the world’s climate and human rights?
