The recent takeover of Dutch-owned ABN AMRO Bank by a consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland garnered a great deal of press coverage on account of its US$99.3 billion price tag, reportedly the biggest acquisition in banking history. Overshadowed amid questions of future market share and looming job losses, however, is whether the consortium will continue to push environmental and social (E&S) risk analysis in Latin America, as ABN AMRO did. Latin American banks, unlike many of those in the United States, Europe and Japan, rarely do E&S risk analysis before lending to corporate clients. But the Brazilian subsidiary of ABN AMRO became a regional pioneer in this practice and a major proponent of it in Latin America. Under... [Log in to read more]