Friends of the Earth welcomes Rabobank’s commitment that they will modify their current approach to handling complaints and will publish their complaints procedure, including a time frame for the procedure...Friends of the Earth also welcomes NCP’s recommendation to Rabobank that they should  devote  more  attention  to  being  transparent  with  regard  to  engagement  with  its  clients  specifically on environmental and social issues. However, Friends of the Earth finds the general findings of the NCP very weak, most notably  regarding the following:

• ...NCP fails to acknowledge the many failures of the RSPO. Many organisations have stated repeatedly the weakness of the RSPO and already other initiatives are emerging besides the RSPO...
• ...Friends of the Earth has brought cases of violations by palmoil companies, including Wilmar,  since 2001 to Rabobank. NCP does not clarify when this moment of disengagement arrives, but surely after 15 years of bringing cases the time has come to conclude that the palm oil sector is not a sustainable sector and that financiers should divest from it...
• NCP proposes an evaluation at the end of 2017, but has not formulated the criteria in  a measurable way, so it is not clear what will be evaluated. There are aslo no sanction mechanisms identified...