The Equator Complaints website was launched by BankTrack in June 2023 to mark the 20th Anniversary of the Equator Principles.
With this website we aim to encourage the Equator Principles Association to correct an important failure; namely the absence of an initiative-level grievance mechanism to handle complaints from stakeholders affected by projects that are being financed under the Equator Principles.
We also aim to help people, communities and organisations to make complaints and to support them in getting these complaints to the attention of the banks financing projects that affect them.
BankTrack is the international tracking, campaigning and civil society support organisation targeting private sector commercial banks (‘banks') and the activities they finance. Our mission is to challenge commercial banks globally to act urgently and decisively on the accelerating climate crisis, the ongoing destruction of nature, the risk of ever more pandemics, and the widespread violation of human rights.
Since the adoption of the Equator Principles (EPs) in 2003, BankTrack has acted as a watchdog on the EPs and their implementation. We have analysed projects financed ‘under Equator’ to examine their compliance with the EPs, and analysed aspects of EP implementation including reporting, transparency and project-level grievance mechanisms. BankTrack also led the “Equator Banks, Act!” campaign in 2017, and continues to facilitate civil society engagement with the Equator Principles Association (EPA). For more information about this work, see BankTrack’s website.
BankTrack has called for greater accountability under the EPs since the start of the initiative. In 2019 we joined a call from 79 civil society organisations and partners for the Equator Principles to develop a central accountability mechanism. Since then, we have called upon the Association to improve accountability (among other things) in 2020, following our research into the implementation of Principles 5 and 6 on stakeholder engagement and grievance mechanisms; in 2021 as part of an open letter to the EPA and all EPFIs at their AGM; and in 2022 through another open letter that outlined civil society demands for the EPs ahead of their 20th Anniversary in 2023. The EPA committed to consider developing its own initiative level grievance mechanism when it released the latest version of the Principles in late 2019. However, since then the current Association chair has stated that this will not happen.
To get in touch with us about this website or process, please send an email to equator-complaints@banktrack.org
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