As usual, your Corporate Responsibility Ranking (March 2005) gave Canada's banks an easy ride, among many other things failing to mention at all their numerous, industry-wide violations of consumer protection measures in Canada's banking law that were found by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada in a mystery-shopper survey in 2003.

And while it was mentioned, you clearly failed to take fully into account in their ratings that the banks lend to and invest in all the other sectors you ranked (even though data is readily available about the level of each bank's investment in the other sectors, enough data to be factored into your rankings).

Of the 12 other sectors you ranked, three were ranked poorly, eight ranked good, and only one ranked great.  How is it that the banks end up ranking great when they finance all the other sectors that are ranked no better than good?

Just as the so-called ethical investment industry has done for years, you are ignoring the facts about the banks role in corporate irresponsibility in Canada.  Investing in a bank cannot be ethical until the bank operates fully ethically, including only financing entities that are ethical, and any bank that refuses to disclose details about its lending and investments is clearly systemically irresponsible.

I know you use the "best-of-sector" approach in your rankings, but ignoring bank lending and investing activities (which are among their core business activities) just because all the banks in the sector hide details about these activities simply reveals that your approach is fatally flawed when applied to banks (and, in fact, when applied to any financial institution).

I hope next year's rankings will correct this fatal flaw and rank the banks level of social responsibility more accurately.  One can only hope that the so-called ethical investment industry will take similar steps soon.  The longer Canada's big banks are given an easy ride in corporate responsibility rankings, the longer it will take to increase corporate responsibility in all sectors in Canada.

Sincerely,
Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch
Chairperson of the Canadian Community Reinvestment Coalition (CCRC - www.cancrc.org)