多选题
In 2004, C. Stephenson, a member of Canada"s foremost research company that tracks Canadian corporate social investment responsibility, wrote an article entitled Bill C-8 and Public Accountability Statements/Disclosure Requirements. The article explained how in June 2001, Bill C-8, an act that established the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada and amended certain other acts in relation to financial institutions, became law in Canada. The bill introduced many consumer protection and banking access measures long sought after by the Canadian community and its consumer groups. However, the legislation neglected to establish mandatory social and environmental reporting advocated by some investors.
Accompanying regulations, which received final approval in March 2002, required federal financial institutions with equity of more than $1 billion to publish annual public accountability statements. The statements were required to include information that investors and consumers might use in assessing the operations, policies, and conduct of companies in the financial services sector.
However, there were gaps in the public accountability statement. These included not requiring the disclosure of high-impact social and environmental lending; no reporting on debt financing broken down by sector; not considering harmonizing the accountability standards with the Global Reporting Initiative(GRI); not providing information on company policies, procedures, or principles to assess and manage social, ethical, and environmental impacts of banking activities; or not reporting on company performance under relevant voluntary codes and undertakings.
As a result, investors pursued other means of obtaining social and environmental information. In November 2002, three institutional investors co-sponsored and filed shareholder resolutions with the five largest Canadian banks. The proposals called on the banks to identify their social, environmental, and ethical risks; describe company policies and procedures for managing those risks; and disclose the extent to which they complied with their own internal policies and procedures addressing such risks. The resolutions noted that, while public accountability statements would address consumer and community issues, further information was required for shareholders to accurately assess management"s capacity to avoid risks and generate value through adequately addressing social, environmental, and ethical matters.
Following negotiations between the three institutional shareholders and the banks, the proposals submitted to two banks were withdrawn. However, resolutions were submitted to the shareholders of three others. In their management proxy circulars published in the spring of 2003, those banks stated their opposition to the proposals. They asserted that relevant reporting was either already available or planned, each bank indicating they would report at least some of the requested information in their public accountability statements.
By March 2003, each of the largest five Canadian banks had published their public accountability statements. Each provided comprehensive coverage of the issues set out by regulation. However, in addition, four of the banks included environmental sections in their statements and five more contained corporate governance reporting.
The environmental section in the 2002 public accountability statement of the Royal Bank of Canada provided information on its environmental policy and management system, lending process, procurement program, and operational performance indicators. The Toronto-Dominion Bank"s environmental section focused on its related charitable initiatives and noted its environmental considerations in lending and choice of materials and suppliers. Bank of Nova Scotia"s section overviewed the objectives of its environmental policy. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce"s statement contained information on each of these issues. However, none of the statements offered the type of detailed reporting advocated by social investors during public consultations and in the shareholder resolutions filed with the banks.
In effect, the public accountability statements proved to be a useful first step in increasing public disclosure by Canadian financial institutions, but fell short of their potential to require complete social and environmental reporting. While shareholder pressure was undoubtedly effective in advancing disclosure of that information, the banks coverage of these issues in their public accountability statements and other reporting suggests that voluntary measures alone were insufficient to fully address investor"s due diligence needs. Investors and the public must continue to pursue both shareholder actions to pressure corporations to go beyond the letter of the law in social and environmental reporting, as well as legislative avenues to ensure that such disclosure becomes a regulatory requirement.

accountability: responsibility or justification of one"s actions
statement: an official or formal announcement

多选题 Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.
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Public Accountability Statement is a Canadian legislative initiative which entails some problems.
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多选题 Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.
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A few banks issued their own Public Accountability Statements, dealing with environmental issues.
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