The Equator Principles are a voluntary set of guidelines developed by banks for managing social and environmental issues related to the financing of development projects. The Principles are based on policies and guidelines drawn up by the World Bank and International Finance Corporation. The banks will apply the principles globally and to project financings in all industry sectors, including mining, oil and gas, forestry and the infrastructure sector, with a capital cost of $50 million or more.

<Click for more>

Some facts:

• At the time of its demise in 2001, Enron was the 7th largest American company.
• Enron made hundreds of millions of dollars of profit out of the Californian energy crisis.
• As a result of the company’s collapse 20,000 people lost their job and thousands of people lost their life savings.
• Top executives walked away with over a billion dollars after selling their shares in the weeks and months leading up to declaration of bankruptcy.
• Only one Enron executive, Andy Fastow, has yet to receive a jail term.
• Chief Executive Jeff Skilling and Founder, Ken Lay, considered at the height of the company’s success to be ‘the smartest guys in the room’, come to trial in January 2006.

<Click for more>

Should there be new legislation to improve Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)? There is a joint parliamentary committee holding an inquiry under way that has attracted considerable interest and submissions from businesses and community groups.

<Click for more>

The Corporate Law Economic Reform Program (CLERP) part 9 on corporate reporting and disclosure laws, section 9 says: "Disclosing the remuneration policy is a fundamental requirement for remuneration reporting. The interests of shareholders and the market are best served through a transparent and readily understandable framework for executive compensation and its costs and benefits." Now that shareholders are gaining disclosure, they now want to influence setting remuneration levels.

<Click for more>

The generation of trust is critical in both private commerce and public organisation. Legal and coercive regimes cannot really be relied on, in any society, for the full expression of contractual relations, institutional development and general governance. Some theorists have given the name 'social capital' to the value embedded in these relationships of trust. However, in an age of privatisation, it is important to observe those areas where shared institutions generate this asset more effectively than individualised, commercial relations.
Tim Anderson

<Click for more>