赤道原则:金融业可持续发展的梦想抑或恶梦

作为国际项目融资的行业基准,赤道原则集中体现了商业金融机构致力于可持续发展的愿景。本文在简介赤道原则运行机理的基础上,分析赤道原则现行规定的内在缺陷与实践中的执行困难,提出金融机构在诚信执行赤道原则方面的相关建议。     

金融业可持续发展的理想抑或噩梦——基于赤道原则的法学分析

作为国际项目融资的行业基准,赤道原则集中体现了商业金融机构致力于可持续发展的愿望,并成为项目融资产业通行的行业惯例。但从法学视角分析,该原则的适用范围、适用对象、适用标准及执行系统等方面存在的灵活性和含糊不清的规定等内在缺陷和脆弱性,导致该原则在实践中执行困难。这需要对赤道原则进行修订和完善,同时采用赤道原则的金融机构应切实履行自我承诺,使其真正成为金融可持续发展的助推器。     

IFC支持银行实现绿色信贷

“绿色”理念已逐渐被国人所认同,“绿色”行动也在逐渐被诸多机构和企业所推进。我们看到,自2003年6月IFC等金融机构推出“赤道原则”以来,全球已经有63家金融机构宣布采纳“赤道原则”,而中国的兴业银行是全球第63家,也是中国第一家宣布采纳“赤道原则”的金融机构。采纳“赤道原则”的金融机构（EPFIs）形成了一个联盟,那就是拒绝为违反赤道原则相关的社会、环境政策和程序的项目贷款。而赤道原则采用IFC的社会和环境标准,也充分体现了IFC的领导能力。为此,《国际融资》杂志记者采访了IFC执行副总裁兼首席执行官拉尔斯·特内尔（Lars Thunell）     

基于“赤道原则”下商业银行履行社会责任有效性的实现

＂赤道原则＂倡导金融机构对于项目融资中的环境问题应尽到审慎性核查义务,只有在融资申请方面能够证明项目执行对社会和环境负责的前提下,才能提供融资。该原则已成为各国银行可持续金融运行的行动指南。基于＂赤道原则＂下我国商业银行履行社会责任有着积极的现实意义。     

赤道原则与商业银行发展研究

赤道原则是金融机构在项目融资时对环境保护和社会发展方面所遵循的标准。国际先进银行采用赤道原则的实践表明，赤道原则有利于商业银行降低项目融资风险，改善内部管理体制和经营绩效，提高银行的社会声誉。我国金融机构应从内外两方面积极适应赤道原则。通过提供卓越的金融产品和服务来发挥影响力，支持社会、经济、环境的可持续发展。     

自愿承诺视角下赤道原则的功能分析——基于人权与环境中心在乌拉圭Orion项目融资的申诉实践

作为商业银行判断、评估和管理项目融资中环境与社会风险的行业基准,赤道原则在项目融资实践中得到了越来越多的应用.本文围绕赤道原则的自愿承诺性,通过概述人权与环境中心利用赤道原则阻止两家赤道原则金融机构为乌拉圭Orion纸浆纸张厂项目提供融资的申诉活动,分析赤道原则申诉机制在项目融资争端解决实践中的具体应用,揭示出赤道原则的功能与价值,为今后进一步完善赤道原则提供理论依据.     

赤道原则与商业银行发展

赤道原则是金融机构进行项目融资时在环境保护和社会发展方面所遵循的标准。国际先进银行的实践表明,赤道原则有利于商业银行降低项目融资风险,改善内部管理体制和经营绩效,提高银行的社会声誉。我国金融机构应从内外两方面积极适应赤道原则,通过提供卓越的金融产品和服务来发挥影响力,支持社会、经济、环境的可持续发展。     

国内金融机构接受赤道原贝的问题与实施建议

随着我国绿色信贷政策方向的逐步明朗和深入,作为国际间金融机构公认的环境和社会风险行为准则--赤道原则日益受到国内金融机构的广泛关注.2008年10月31日,兴业银行在北京召开新闻发布会正式对外宣布采纳赤道原则,与此同时,国家开发银行、建设银行等国内金融机构也相继表态要接受赤道原则.我国是一个发展中的大国,金融机构采纳赤道原则,不仅要考虑单纯的环境因素,还要协调发展优先与环境保护,做到科学发展.     

商业银行推行“赤道原则”问题探讨

随着我国“绿色信贷”政策的逐步推广,作为国际间金融机构公认的环境和社会风险行为准则——“赤道原则”日益受到国内金融机构的广泛关注。本文在对“赤道原则”有关规定进行解读的基础上,阐述了推行“赤道原则”的重大意义．并结合实际情况,提出推行“赤道原则”的若干建议。     

从赤道原则看欠发达地区银行业金融机构履行社会责任

对环境和社会负责,是项目融资过程中必须研究分析的基础工作,国际金融公司和世界银行制定的赤道原则为项目融资提供了新的行业标准,本文通过对赤道原则的思考和分析,为目前银行业金融机构履行社会责任提供一些思路和参考。     

赤道银行盈利问题研究——绿色金融背景下企业社会责任和财务绩效关联的再探讨

本文以赤道原则为例,对企业社会责任和财务绩效之间的关系进行了实证研究。运用最早的10家赤道银行2005-2012年的面板数据构建回归模型,探究金融机构采纳赤道原则与盈利间是否相关,如何相关。结果表明,在充分考虑滞后的前提下,金融机构在低风险C类项目、基础设施和可再生能源、新兴市场国家三类融资数目均与盈利正相关。文章最后提出结合国情引入赤道原则并保证融资方针连续性的建议。     

金融机构的企业社会责任基准:赤道原则

赤道原则是金融机构的企业社会责任基准,是全球企业社会责任运动推动的结果。它要求金融机构对于项目融资中的环境和社会问题尽到审慎性审核调查义务。它能实现金融机构的企业社会责任和经济责任的有机统一,对社会、金融界和金融机构本身都具有重大意义。目前,它已成功运用于国际实践,呈现出自己的特点,也出现了一些问题。因此, 我国金融机构要讲究策略,积极应对接受赤道原则。     

中国银行信贷项目环境风险评估模型的构建和应用

拥有自己的环境风险评估模型是银行进行独立环境决策和进一步降低环境风险的基础,也是强化信贷手段在预防和控制环境污染两方面作用的需要。参照银行绿色信贷的赤道原则构建信贷项目的环境风险评估指标体系,并通过问卷调查和层次分析法确定四大国有银行、中型银行、小型银行和外资银行共四类商业银行的指标权重,建立起符合他们各自风险偏好的环境风险评估模型,再以实例分析来说明模型的具体应用过程,结果发现,非外资银行偏重包含政策因素的社会环境指标,在自然环境因素中偏重污染物排放指标;外资银行则具有较平均的权重,且重视生态、社区和工作环境等指标。     

低碳金融与中国商业银行的发展

本文结合国际低碳经济的发展趋势和中国商业银行发展低碳金融的现状,指出中国商业银行应从两方面入手发展低碳金融业务:一是积极开展低碳授信工作,包括:开拓信贷市场,寻求有效信贷资源;根据赤道原则实行有差别的授信管理制度;完善低碳绿色信贷的环境。二是拓展中国银行业的低碳中间业务领域,包括:为CDM项目提供多元化的中介服务,积极参与和促进碳排放权交易的中介平台的建设;积极探索开发与碳排放权相关的理财产品。政府需在政策层面激励商业银行开展碳金融业务,商业银行应主动转变经营策略以适应碳金融发展。     

论赤道原则建立利益相关者互动机制的基本原则

赤道原则强调贷款银行应通过建立与项目利益相关者的互动机制,以及时识别融资项目的环境风险,有效提高信贷资产的安全性。其建立应该遵守以下原则:与项目分类及性质相一致;与项目的环境影响评估相结合;贯穿于项目整个生命周期;坚持信息披露、磋商和投诉管理环节;尊重东道国的法律法规和文化习俗等。中国的银行要按照上述原则,构建高效的利益相关者互动机制,提高项目的环境风险管理水平。     

Banking on the principles: Compliance with Basel Core Principles and bank soundness

This study finds that banks receive more favorable Moody's financial strength ratings in countries with better compliance with Basel Core Principles related to information provision. The results are robust to controlling for broad indexes of institutional quality, macroeconomic variables, sovereign ratings, and reverse causality. Compliance with other Core Principles does not affect ratings robustly. Measuring bank soundness through Z-scores yields broadly similar results for advanced and emerging markets. Countries aiming to upgrade banking regulation and supervision should consider giving priority to information provision over other elements of the core principles.     

A Glimpse into the Future: Cross‐border Judicial Cooperation in Insolvency Cases in the European Union

After 2 years of study, discussion and consultation, in February 2015, the EU Cross‐Border Insolvency Court‐to‐Court Cooperation Principles were published. The EU Cross‐Border Insolvency Court‐to‐Court Cooperation Principles (‘EU JudgeCo Principles’) contain 26 principles. The EU JudgeCo Principles aim to strengthen efficient and effective communication between courts in EU Member States in insolvency cases with cross‐border effects. The EU JudgeCo Principles, in short, include principles on their non‐binding status and their objectives, case management of courts and the equal treatment of creditors, and principles about the judicial decisions itself, on the reasoning and for instance on providing a stay or moratorium. Several principles relate to the course of the proceedings, such as notifications and authentication of documents, and the last principles concern the outcome of judicial cooperation, for instance, cross‐border sales, assistance to a reorganisation or rules for binding creditors to an international reorganisation plan. The Principles include 18 EU Cross‐Border Insolvency Court‐to‐Court Communications Guidelines (‘EU JudgeCo Guidelines’). These EU JudgeCo Guidelines aim to facilitate communications in practice, in individual cross‐border cases. The EU JudgeCo Principles try to overcome present obstacles for courts in EU Member States such as formalistic and detailed national procedural law, concerns about a judge's impartiality, uneasiness with the use of certain legal concepts and terms, and, evidently, language. Presently, court‐to‐court communication between judges in insolvency matters in the EU, especially on the continent, is limited to only a few cases. In the near future, judicial cooperation and communication will be a cornerstone in the efficient and effective administration of insolvency cases within the EU. The EU JudgeCo Principles will then certainly serve as a significant guide. Copyright © 2015 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd     

A comprehensive effort to recruit and retain accounting students

This paper describes a series of coordinated and proactive recruitment and retention efforts within the accounting department of a southeastern university. Each semester, recruitment of successful students in Principles of Accounting classes is a departmental priority. The intention is to encourage Principles students to declare a major in accounting. For accounting majors in the junior and senior years, a series of programs is offered for professional development. Each year students are surveyed to gauge the perceived value of the time spent out-of-classroom. The results indicate that the time spent out-of-classroom is beneficial. Most important, the results of our efforts to recruit to the major from Principles classes correlate to previous research that indicates contacting potential majors in the introductory course is crucial.     

The effect of cooperative learning on student perceptions of accounting in the principles courses

This paper describes an experiment that investigates the effect of cooperative learning techniques on introductory accounting students' perceptions of accounting. We administered identical survey instruments measuring students' perceptions of accounting to all accounting principles students at the beginning and end of a semester. Instructors used cooperative learning techniques in one-half of the sections (experimental), and a traditional lecture format in the other sections (control).We compared the pretest and posttest student responses for the experimental and control sections. For Accounting Principles I, 40% of the responses exhibited differences between experimental and control sections that were consistent with a cooperative learning effect. No effect was found for Accounting Principles II. An exploratory factor analysis of Accounting Principles I data showed that the factor “student interest in learning accounting” accounted for most of the differences that were consistent with cooperative learning effects. Also, students in the experimental sections of Accounting Principles I performed marginally better on a common final exam than students in the control sections.Overall, students began their introductory accounting courses with positive perceptions of accounting. Students in sections using cooperative learning techniques were, on average, more likely to maintain those positive perceptions than students in sections using the traditional lecture format.