HSBC Holdings PLC has ordered an audit of its relations with logging companies responsible for destroying the Borneo rainforest following a mocumentary video from London-based watchdog group Global Witness featuring Bill Oddie, a naturalist and television presenter.
In the brief video, Oddie profiles the wily banker, noting the creature's characteristic lack of remorse for destroying the planet's rainforests. At the end of the video, Oddie enters the banker's habitat, and security guards throw Oddie out of the HSBC lobby. The "BankWatch" video had more than 170,000 views, and the companion petition calling for HSBC to stop supporting the loggers got more than 15,000 signatures.
Global Witness investigations have revealed that HSBC provided loans and services to logging companies with close ties to Sarawak's Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is currently under investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
Simon Martin, head of Global Corporate Sustainability at HSBC, issued a statement saying: "In light of concerns raised by Global Witness, we will a) Engage Proforest, an independent international organization that advises on sustainable natural resource management, to benchmark our policy against the wider corporate sector, and make recommendations for improvements; b) commission PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct a compliance review of our implementation of the policy. We will report on the findings in due course."
Martin said HSBC has already "stopped providing banking services" to 68 clients in Malaysia because their activities did not comply with the bank's forest policies.
