Benchmarking the European Investment Bank's financial intermediary lending

The European Investment Bank is currently finalising a new set of environmental and social standards, one of which applies to the bank’s indirect lending through financial intermediaries (FIs). Over a third of EIB’s total spending is through FIs – in 2020, this amounted to EUR 22.6 billion. In addition, the European Investment Fund, a risk finance facility which is a part of the EIB Group, reached almost EUR 13 billion in financing entirely directed through FIs.

So it is vitally important that EIB apply rigorous environmental and social standards to such a huge sum. Unfortunately,  research from Bankwatch, Counterbalance, Euronatur and Recourse finds that not only is the proposed new standard hopelessly weak but it lags far behind other international financial institutions, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and even the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.