Printer Friendly Page
| ||||||||||||||||||
To: All Citigroup Employees
From: Sandy Weill
Date: June 4, 2003
Re: Citigroup Adopts Equator Principles
One of our foremost goals, wherever Citigroup has a presence, is to make the community better because we are there. As a global institution with a presence in 100 countries, that responsibility extends throughout the world and includes appropriate sensitivity to sustainable development and environmental impacts.
While we have a long record of positive accomplishments (see our Citizenship Annual Report at www.citigroup.com/citigroup/citizen), at the Annual Shareholder Meeting in April, I mentioned that Citigroup would take additional steps to enhance its approach to environmental issues. Today, I am very proud to announce that Citigroup, along with nine financial institutions from seven countries, adopted the Equator Principles – a new, voluntary set of guidelines developed by the banks for managing social and environmental issues related to the financing of development projects, based on the policies and guidelines of the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC).
We take special pride in the Equator Principles because Citigroup, as the world leader in project finance, played a leadership role from the beginning to get this done. I want to thank Chuck Prince, CEO of our corporate and investment bank, Chris Beale, head of Project Finance, and Pam Flaherty, head of Community Relations, for their vision and determination to bring our industry to a new level of global citizenship.
The debate about globalization has now focused on the private sector and there is a growing realization that much more can be accomplished by working with responsible companies than against them. Our role in the creation of the Equator Principles was inspired in part by our dialogue with shareholders, clients, and nongovernmental organizations and the milestone we celebrate today shows just how positive a role the corporate sector can play.
While this is an important step, we realize there is more to do. We are committed to, and look forward to, continued progress in our commitment to the community.