Fair Finance Guide Germany (FFG) is a project coordinated by the NGO Facing Finance. FFG have released their 8th updated finance guide to examine whether and how German banks respect social, environmental and human rights. The highest scores again go to the alternative banks and church banks GLS Bank, Tomorrow2, Ethikbank, KD-Bank, Triodos Bank and Pax-Bank. Overall, German banks are improving in terms of transparency and sustainability, but still lag behind Swedish, Belgian or Dutch banks, as shown by the FFG in other countries. Deep sea mining is increasingly emerging as a key potential threat to our oceans, as well as a risk for financiers. The FFG has, for the first time, recognised deep sea mining (DSM) as a new sustainability criterion. The DSM Campaign has been working with FFG on this issue. FFG’s research has uncovered that 11 of the 20 banks studied directly exclude financing DSM projects. These include Apobank, Deutsche Bank, DZ Bank, Ethikbank, GLS, KD-Bank, Pax-Bank, Sparkasse Köln-Bonn, Tomorrow, Triodos, UniCredit. We are encouraged in terms of those banks standing up against exploiting the deep sea. However, a number of these banks continue to finance and invest in those who are supporting the industry, such as Deme Group whose deep-sea exploratory division is Global Sea Mineral Resources (GSR). Deutsche Bank and DZ Bank are shareholders of Deme. We would encourage those banks to use their shareholding to discourage DSM activities, and to divest if this is not acted on.
💥 Der neue FAIR FINANCE GUIDE ist da 💥 ***English below*** Wie fair ist meine Bank? 🌱 Diese Frage beantwortet unser #FairFinanceGuide ab heute für 20 Banken. 🔥 Das Wichtigste in Kürze: 🔫 In vielen Sektoren haben Banken ihre Transparenz und Nachhaltigkeit erhöht. Ausnahme: #Rüstung Verschiedene Banken haben ihre Rüstungsrichtlinien aufgeweicht, oft unter Verweis auf die Notwendigkeit der Ausstattung der EU-Armeen. Aber sie haben keine Richtlinien, die die Finanzierung auf die Ausstattung der EU-Armeen limitiert oder geächtete Waffen und Rüstungsexporte an kriegführende und menschenrechtsverletzende Regime ausschließt. 🌊 Beim Thema #Tiefseebergbau hinken viele Banken noch hinterher. Den gravierend umweltschädlichen Tiefseebergbau haben viele deutsche Banken noch nicht auf dem Schirm und bleiben hier hinter Banken aus Benelux oder Skandinavien zurück. ***Deutsche Pressemitteilung Seite 4*** 💥 The new FAIR FINANCE GUIDE is out 💥 How fair is my bank? 🌱 Our new #FairFinanceGuide answers this question for 20 banks active in Germany, including UniCredit Triodos Bank ING. 🔥 Some insights: 🔫 Banks increased their transparency and sustainability in most sectors. Exception: #Weapons Several banks have watered down their arms policies, often referring to the need of equipping the EU armees. However, they do not have policies that limit financing to equipping EU armees or that rule out banned weapons and arms exports to human rights violating and war fueling regimes. 🌊 Many banks lag behind regarding #DeepSeaMining The environmentally critical topic deep sea mining is still not on the radar of many German banks, lagging behind banks from Benelux or Scandinavia. 👉 www.fairfinanceguide.de Deep Sea Mining Campaign SÜDWIND e.V. Fair Finance International Stiftung Umwelt und Entwicklung Nordrhein-Westfalen Misereor Finanzwende utopia.de ECOreporter.de AG Urgewald Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) Oxfam Novib FairFin Profundo Financité Jakob König Milieudefensie Amnesty International The Netherlands Barbara Oosters Titus Bolten