Fair Finance Guide International
The Fair Finance Guide International (FFGI) is an international civil society network initiated by Oxfam, that seeks to strengthen the commitment of banks and other financial institutions to social, environmental and human rights standards.
FFGI builds on a pioneering model developed in the Netherlands since 2009, The Fair Bank Guide, which was followed by a Fair Insurance Guide in 2013.
FFGI is currently active in 9 countries: Belgium, Brazil, France, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands ,Sweden, Germany and Norway. Read more on www.fairfinanceguide.org.
The Dutch Fair Finance Guide
The Dutch Fair Finance Guide [De Eerlijke Geldwijzer] is a web-based tool that enables bank clients and policy holders to make their bank and insurer more socially responsible, fair, and sustainable by benchmarking it in ten themes and nine sectors.
The Fair Bank Guide & The Fair Insurance Guide
The Fair Bank Guide (De Eerlijke Bankwijzer) was launched on 22 January 2009. The Fair Insurance Guide (De Eerlijke Verzekeringswijzer) was launched on 16 September 2013. Both are a partnership between Amnesty International, Dutch labour union FNV, Friends of the Earth Netherlands, Oxfam Novib, PAX and World Animal Protection.
Aim
The aim of the Fair Finance Guide is to initiate a ‘race to the top’ between both banks and insurers on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Ideally, a self-reinforcing process will develop in which social, environmental and economic standards are raised continuously, ultimately resulting in sustainable credits, investments and asset management all over the world. The Fair Finance Guide contributes to banks’ and insurers’ CSR policies and practices on a wide variety of issues, benefiting a broad audience.
The parties involved in The Fair Finance Guide primarily want to:
1. Regularly assess the banks’ policies and the insurers’ policies and give scores for each policy;
2. Carry out empirical case studies and draw conclusions about the extent to which the banks and insurers follow their own policies, and the extent to which these policies comply with international (sustainability) standards;
3. Engage banks and insurers in dialogue, providing them with feedback on their (draft-)policies,
implementation of policies, transparency and other concrete sustainability issues;
4. Involve consumers through (social) media in critically assessing the policy of their bank and
insurer, and stimulate them to put pressure on their bank and insurer for more sustainable
investments, transparency and accountability;
5. Organize media pressure by publishing the scores of banks and insurers on a wide range of issues, and by producing case studies of bank and insurer practices;
6. Translate proposals for improving banks’ and insurers’ policies into policy recommendations for more effective regulation through policy work with parliamentarians
and ministries.
Read more about the results of the Fair Bank Guide in 5 years of the Dutch Fair Bank Guide
