Analysis of financial institutions’ policy orientation towards environmental and social safeguards, identifying gaps and limitations.
This Gap analysis is an attempt to analyze the policy orientation of financial institutions with regard to environment and social safeguards identifying the gaps and limitations. This is done by comparing the existing policies with an ideal set of principles that need to be enshrined in developing an environment and social safeguard policy. This has become an imperative as financial institutions play a crucial role in funding developmental projects. Commercial banks, insurance companies which traditionally catered to individual needs are increasingly taking up roles of lending to large projects.
This study has taken the top two Financial Institutions that are lending to large scale projects – Public banks, private banks, insurance companies, NBFCs. For each of the institutions, the study looks into its available policies on environment and sustainability. Annual reports of the last three years (2018 – 2022) are studied for any commitments from the institutions on ESS, Climate crisis etc.
These commitments are compared with an ideal ESS policy and the gaps are identified.
Read and download the analysis here: Gap Analysis
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