Global Banks as Global Sustainability Regulators?: The Equator Principles

Law and Policy 33:4, 542-575 (2011)

34 Pages Posted: 9 Jun 2013

See all articles by John M. Conley

John M. Conley

University of North Carolina School of Law

Cynthia A. Williams

Indiana University Maurer School of Law

Date Written: October 7, 2011

Abstract

Banks might now seem odd candidates for the role of global sustainability regulator. Nonetheless, in limited areas of their operation, where global banks kept risk on their balance sheets and were financially exposed to many types of risk often otherwise treated as “externalities,” banks began to enact policies to encourage what they construe as “sustainable” banking. A small number of these banks have started to extend these principles of responsible action more broadly, across many of their business lines, as conditions of lending to their corporate clients. To this extent, it is possible to talk about (some) global banks as global sustainability regulators. The “law of unintended consequences” as used in the legal literature almost always refers to the unintended negative consequences of a regulation or policy. In this article, however, we discuss a potentially positive unintended consequence of the deregulatory and privatization trend of the 1980s and 1990s that was fueled by neoliberal political commitments: some private banks have taken a leadership role in regulating development. Specifically, these banks are enacting policies that attempt to mitigate the potentially negative social and environmental consequences of infrastructure development in politically unstable or environmentally fragile landscapes. The vehicle for doing this is a voluntary agreement called the Equator Principles (EPs). The article describes and analyzes the EPs and reports the initial results from an interview-based study of the various EPs stakeholders, including bankers, government officials, lawyers, consultants, and critics from nongovernmental organizations. We address – from the perspective of these stakeholders – such questions as why the participating banks decided to join the EPs, what effects, if any, the EPs are having on development practice, and whether the EPs will ultimately prove to be more than a public relations exercise.

Keywords: Equator Principles, banking, self-regulation, regulatory theory, corporate responsibility, corporate governance, sustainability, new governance

JEL Classification: G21, K20, K22, K42, M14, L50

Suggested Citation

Conley, John M. and Williams, Cynthia A., Global Banks as Global Sustainability Regulators?: The Equator Principles (October 7, 2011). Law and Policy 33:4, 542-575 (2011), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2276084

John M. Conley (Contact Author)

University of North Carolina School of Law ( email )

Van Hecke-Wettach Hall, 160 Ridge Road
CB #3380
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3380
United States
919-962-8502 (Phone)

Cynthia A. Williams

Indiana University Maurer School of Law ( email )

211 S. Indiana Avenue
Bloomington, IN 47405
United States

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