Fidelity Bank Plc  office

Fidelity Bank Plc  has adopted the Equator Principles in  order to demonstrate  the bank’s  commitment to environmental sustainability. The Equator Principles are a set of credit risk management framework for determining, assessing and managing environmental and social risk in project finance. The principles are adopted voluntarily by financial institutions and are applied where total project capital costs exceed $10 million.

Fidelity Bank, in a statement,  said that the move was  part of its strategies  to be corporately and socially responsible to the well being of the environment and communities in which it operates.

“By adopting the Equator Principles, Fidelity Bank commits to providing loans only to projects that pass environment risk assessment such that focus on profit making does not endanger human lives. Fidelity Bank is one of only two Nigerian banks and 10 African banks to have adopted the Equator Principles. Some African member banks include Standard Bank of South Africa Limited, Nedbank Limited, FirstRand Limited, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated and ABSA Bank Limited of South Africa,” the commercial bank added.

The Equator Principles were launched in 2003 at a meeting in London of  nine international banks and  the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to discuss the development of a banking industry framework for addressing environmental and social risks in project financing that could be applied globally and across all industry sectors.
This framework is based on the Policy and Performance Standards and the Environmental Health and Safety Guidelines set down by the IFC.