This report, released by BankTrack, the international NGO network monitoring the financial sector, and Friends of the Earth (US) finds that only two of China`s ten most important banks -- China Development Bank (CDB) and the Export-Import Bank of China (Chexim) -- have publicly disclosed environmental policies. Both banks` policies fall short of international best practices, while the rest of the eight banks surveyed had no publicly available environmental financing standards.
With this report, BankTrack aims to fill a gap in public knowledge on the environmental policies of Chinese banks. China`s financial institutions have long played a key role in bankrolling industrial development within China, and today they are also becoming important players in financing environmentally and socially sensitive activities around the world.
'By adopting world-class environmental financing standards, Chinese banks can play an important role in advancing sustainability on a global level,' said Johan Frijns, coordinator of BankTrack. 'Otherwise, they threaten to drag down whatever progress that has been made in developing such standards for the international banking sector.' 
Chinese_Bank_Report_5-9-07
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