Guidelines have been issued to establish ethical standards for
financial institutions in Shanghai. The aim is to guarantee
stakeholders’ rights and enhance social and environmental
responsibility.
The principles are stated in a set of CSR guidelines for Shanghai’s
banking and financial corporations by the city’s division of the China
Banking Regulatory Commission.
The guidelines insist that financial institutions should uphold the
legal rights of stakeholders, including shareholders, employees and
consumers, provide services to the community in convenient ways and
improve service quality. This would include telling consumers of risks
involved in any financial transactions. The guidelines ask the
institutions to educate consumers and to run programmes to increase
awareness of financial issues and risks.
The guidelines also say institutions should promote economic and
environmental sustainability and draw up environmental principles. They
should try to limit consumption, and their lending policies should
exclude projects that cause pollution or use vast amounts of energy.
