Target 9.3: Small-enterprise access to finance and markets
Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets
Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Why shareholder democracy is necessary
IFC estimates a USD 5.2 trillion formal MSME finance gap and reports that its partner financial institutions made 5.6 million SME loans worth USD 385 billion in 2024. That record shows bank lending conduct determines credit access. The corporate actors are listed banks and the multinational buyers that anchor long chains of suppliers through payment terms and sourcing decisions. Governments supply credit guarantees and registries. Bank shareholders have used proxy votes to change lending priorities, as in Ceres' 2024 campaign that won commitments from JPMorgan, Citigroup and RBC. Owners supply a necessary input, and governments must also act.
How this was scoredNecessary
Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Tracked and publicized the 2024 bank proposals that asked lenders to disclose financing ratios and reported that JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Royal Bank of Canada agreed, leading to withdrawals.
Investors drive banks toward greater transparency on climate in 2024 proxy season, Ceres, 2024-05
Filed racial equity audit proposals at the largest U.S. banks asking third parties to grade lending operations and community commitments, including investment in Black-owned businesses.
Citigroup agrees to audit of investments in minority communities, American Banker, 2021-10
2 campaigns on record
Disclose a clean energy supply finance ratio comparing financing of clean energy to fossil fuel financing.
Result: Withdrawn after all three banks agreed to disclose their financing ratios.
JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and RBC committed to disclose financing ratios.
Investors drive banks toward greater transparency on climate in 2024 proxy season, Ceres, 2024-05
Commission an independent racial equity audit of the bank's lending operations and community commitments.
Result: Not passed at any bank; support of more than 38 percent at Citigroup excluding abstentions, nearly 40 percent at JPMorgan Chase, 26.5 percent at Bank of America and about 13 percent at Wells Fargo.
Citigroup agreed in October 2021 to a racial equity audit by Covington & Burling covering its USD 1 billion pledge, which includes increasing investment in Black-owned businesses.
Citigroup agrees to audit of investments in minority communities, American Banker, 2021-10
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.